A small mono-polar direct methanol fuel cell stack with passive operation

A passive direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack that consists of six unit cells was designed, fabricated, and tested. The stack was tested with different methanol concentrations under ambient conditions. It was found that the stack performance increased when the methanol concentration inside the fuel tank was increased from 2.0 to 6.0 M. The improved performance is primarily due to the increased cell temperature as a result of the exothermic reaction between the permeated methanol and oxygen on the cathode. Moreover, the increased cell temperature enhanced the water evaporation rate on the air-breathing cathode, which significantly reduced water flooding on the cathode and further improved the stack performance. This passive DMFC stack, providing 350 mW at 1.8 V, was successfully applied to power a seagull display kit. The seagull display kit can continuously run for about 4 h on a single charge of 25 cm3 4.0-M methanol solution.