Design and Fabrication of a Silicon-based Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

The design and fabrication for a novel silicon-based micro direct methanol fuel cell (mu-DMFC) of 0.64cm² active area on <100> silicon wafer are described in this paper. The novelty of the DMFC structure is that the anodic micro channels arranged in the asymmetric mesh have been fabricated, and the first objective of the experimental trials is to verify the feasibility of the novel structure on the basis of MEMS technology. The effect of different operating parameters on mu-DMFC performances is experimentally studied for two different flow field configurations (grid and spiral). Preliminary testing results show that this novel mu-DMFC demonstrates the better performances using 2M methanol solution feed at room temperature, and the output characteristics of mu-DMFC with the grid flow field exceed the one with the spiral flow field. Results have demonstrated a maximum output power density of about 2.3mW/cm² using 2M methanol solution