A Micro Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell with PDMS Fluid Flow Plates

Abstract

Micro direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC) is currently one of the promising technologies to power micro/nano devices and systems. Compared with micro direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), micro (DFAFC) can have higher proton conductivity and energy density, and crossover of formic acid through Nafion membrane is significantly less than methanol. In this paper, a micro DFAFC has been developed. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is chosen as the material for fluid flow plates in both cathode and anode of the micro DFAFC in order to simplify its structure and improve its packaging performance. The developed micro DFAFC has been tested and results show that its input concentration of formic acid solution can reach up to 10mol/L with its peak power output of 13.6mW/cm2 and maximum output current of 97.66mA/cm2.