Self-Pumping Mixed Reactant Micro Fuel Cell

Janet I. Hur and Chang-Jin “CJ” Kim

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), California, U.S.A.
(janethur@ucla.edu)

ABSTRACT with check valve. When bubble meets porous

While many papers reported micro fuel cells, a membrane of non-wetting surface, only gas is
3
working system under 1 cm has not been selectively vented resulting in pulling the fresh fuel
achieved until recently because of the inability to into the channel for next cycle [4].
miniaturize key ancillary parts. Our group has
recently developed a micro fuel cell that pumps
and removes gas without using any discrete pump
or gas separator. Starting with this self-pumping
fuel cell, we further eliminate membrane electrode
assembly (MEA) from the micro fuel cell, removing
the problems associated with MEA and making the
packaging much easier. To make the system even
simpler, we propose a micro fuel cell that operates
with fuel-oxidant mixture, relying on the selectivity
of catalysts. Current proof-of-concept device
verifies the viability of self-pumping mechanism
with single stream of fuel-oxidant mixture,
generating 8 mW/cm2 of peak power density.
Figure 1 Working mechanism of reported fuel cell [4]
I. INTRODUCTION
Microscale fuel cells are not well accepted for III. RESULTS
alternative energy sources yet since packaging Through the side of transparent channel,
ancillary parts below 1 cm3 was an obstacle. To bubble-pumping mechanism was verified visually
eliminate this “packaging penalty”, a self-pumping and pumping gave fluctuating current density for
fuel cell using CO2 bubble was recently reported more than 10 minutes. Surprisingly, it was shown
[1]. In conquest for a simplest possible fuel cell that Pt catalyst on cathode became fuel tolerant
configuration, MEA has become the next and worked as selective catalyst without oxidizing
challenge. There has been an effort to eliminate formic acid. This still needs further explanation,
MEA by incorporating laminar flow based fuel cell however we speculate that the protection is due to
[2]. However, the existence of bubble and a thin layer of water formed on cathode separating
peristaltic nature of its pumping mechanism fuel [4]. Fuel cell shown here outputted 0.6 V of
disrupts the laminar streams of fuel and oxidant. open circuit potential and 8 mW/cm2 of peak power
The next idea was to incorporate a mixed-reactant density.
technique [3] to keep the MEA out of the design
and eliminate the crossover issue. REFERENCES
1. D.D. Meng and C.-J. Kim, J. Power Sources, Vol.
II. MECHANISM 194, pp. 445-450, 2009.
CO2 byproduct during the electrochemical 2. E. Kjeang, et al., J. Power Sources, Vol. 186, pp. 353-
reaction is utilized in order to enable self-pumping. 369, 2009.
3. D.T. Whipple, et al., Electrochemica Acta, Vol. 54, pp.
Illustration in Fig. 1 shows the first bubble
4384-4388, 2009.
generation on anode catalyst and then bubble 4. J.I. Hur et al., Proc. Int. Conf. MEMS, Hong Kong,
growing toward outlet while inlet part was blocked China, Jan. 2010, pp. 168-171.