Abstract
We report on the analysis of the performance of each electrode of an air-breathing passive micro-direct methanol fuel cell (µDMFC) during polarization, stabilization and discharge, with CH3OH (2–20 M). A reference electrode with a microcapillary was used for separately measuring the anode the cathode potential. Information about the open circuit potential (OCP), the voltage and the mass transport related phenomena are available. Using 2 M CH3OH, the anode showed mass transport problems. With 4 and 6 M CH3OH both electrodes experience this situation, whereas with 10 and 20 M CH3OH the issue is attributed to the cathode. The stabilization and fuel consumption time depends mainly on the cathode performance, which is very sensitive to fuel crossover. The exposure to 20 M CH3OH produced a loss in performance of more than 75% of the highest power density (16.3 mW·cm−2).
Highlights
In recent years micro-fabricated fuel cells such as passive micro-direct methanol fuel cells have been proposed as promising systems for powering portable devices [1,2,3]
In this work we study, in a simple and straightforward way, the performance of each electrode of a passive, air-breathing μDMFC, submitted to CH3OH up to 20 M
In this work we have focussed exclusively on studying a fuel cell operating with fuel concentrations up to 20 M, with a reference hydrogen electrode (RHE) that does not imply any modification to the cell architecture and no salt bridge is used
Summary
In recent years micro-fabricated fuel cells such as passive micro-direct methanol fuel cells (μDMFC) have been proposed as promising systems for powering portable devices [1,2,3]. The use of a reference hydrogen electrode (RHE) allows one to studying the fuel crossover and the performance of the anode and the cathode, separately [19,20,21]. Through a Luggin capillary placed closely to one of the electrodes it is possible to measure the performance of the anode and the cathode in proton exchange membrane (PEM) hydrogen fuel cells [22] and electrolysers [23].
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