Au Coated Printed Circuit Board Current Collectors Using a Pulse Electroplating Method for Fuel Cell Applications

Sang-Sun Park,Yukwon Jeon,Won Chi,Chanmin Lee,Yong-Gun Shul,Na-Young Shin

doi:10.3390/en14164960

Abstract

The effect of the Au coated printed circuit board (PCB) as a current collector on the performance of fuel cells is demonstrated. In this study, optimized pulse electroplating was introduced, which was found to be much more effective compared to the direct current (DC) plating for the PCB fabrication based on the passive area from the potentiodynamic polarization scan. Variable electrochemical parameters such as applied potential and frequency for the pulse electroplating method are controlled. Using the polarization tests, the corrosion behavior of the Au coated PCB layer was also observed. From these basic data, the coating methods and electrochemical parameters were systematically controlled to achieve efficient results for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). The stability test for the cell operation indicates that the micro DMFC with the Au coated PCB substrate formed at a frequency of 10 Hz exhibited the highest stability and performance. As a result, the Au coated PCB substrate using pulse electroplating at 1.5 V and 1 kHz can be a promising current collector for portable DMFCs.

Highlights

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), which are a class of fuel cells, are of practical interest due to the convenience of their fuel to employ in portable applications [3]
The cell performance, resistance, and 5000 min cell stability were measured for the micro direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) with the Au coated printed circuit board (PCB) substrate formed by the pulse electroplating method to suggest an efficient fabrication condition in terms of electrochemical characteristics
The Au coated PCB substrates by the direct current (DC) electroplating method were fabricated to compare the differences corresponding to the coating methods