Design, fabrication, and initial testing of a miniature PEM fuel cell with micro-scale pyrolyzed carbon fluidic plates

Carbonization of machined polymers is a method of creating carbon structures with small feature sizes without having to directly machine carbon (a difficult and expensive process). Pyrolyzed carbon fluidic plates with feature sizes less than 1 mm are used to create a miniature fuel cell. Epoxy is used to seal the fuel cell and water is directly applied to exposed Nafion® to hydrate the membrane. The use of miniature carbon fluidic plates will allow for fabrication of 3D (non-planar) proton exchange membrane fuel cells utilizing carbon bipolar plates. Initial test results of the fuel cell are given.