A micro direct methanol fuel cell using PDMS assembly technology

This paper presents the fabrication of a micro direct methanol fuel cell, featured by MEMS technology and using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the package material. The detailed fabrication processes, including an original set of assembly steps, are reported. The testing results show that the open circuit potential of the prototype with the active area of 8.6mm × 8.6mm is 0.5V, and the maximum power density is 3.86mW/cm² using 1M methanol feed at room temperature. The PDMS package has prevented the fuel cell from any leakage during the daylong test, demonstrating that MEMS fabrication with the assistance of PDMS can be a promising way for the developing of the micro direct methanol fuel cell (μDMFC).