Development of micro direct methanol fuel cells with high methanol concentration

A novel air-breathing micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) was designed and fabricated by taking Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene(ABS) as a basic material and the stainless steel plate as a current collector. The current collector was fabricated by using micro wire cutting and laser cutting technologies, and its surface was sputterd onto a layer of Au to avoid the electrochemistry corrosion and to reduce the contact resistance. Methanol transport was analysed by the anode model of micro DMFC and then the micro-DMFC was tested at different operating parameters. By comparing with the conventional structure, both results show that the novel anode structure is more suitable for the application of high methanol concentration because of high resistance to methanol transportation and low methanol crossover. It is revealed that this micro-DMFC can work steadily at a high methanol concentration of 7 mol/L and a slow velocity of 0.1 ml/min and it is also meaningful for the future applications due to the advantages of low weights and mass productions.