MEMS Key Technologies For PEMFC And The Stack

In this thesis, presented is a H₂/air self-breathing miniature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (uPEMFC) stack. MEMS fabrication technology is used to complete both the single fuel cell and the stack of six cells electrically connected in serials. The single-sided self-breathing uPEMFC stack with planar-layout configuration is realized for convenience of portable applications. In addition, the μPEMFC stack meets the requirement of miniaturized low cost mass fabrication. The characterization results show specific power as high as 0.21W/cm3, with which the MEMS uPEMFC stack is promising to be applied as new generation of miniaturized hydrogen power source.Chapters are arranged as following:Chapter 1 demonstrates the development of micromachining technology, MEMS devices and their applications. Meanwhile, fuel cell technology, especially miniature fuel cell technology is also surveyed.Chapter 2 introduces the design of the miniature H₂/Air self-breathing uPEMFC, on the base of mathematical model of cathode and anode using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Furthermore, in chapter2, the design of the external gas manifold is also introduced.In chapter 3, the process of PEMFC plate and external gas manifold micro-fabrication is presented. After that, the method of assembling plate and membrane electrode assembly (MEA) into one single fuel cell is introduced. One fuel cell stack including six single fuel cells is presented in the end.In chapter 4, the uPEMFC stack is electrically characterized by V-I measurement. Analysis on the factors which affect the performance of the fuel cell stack is introduced on the base of the experiment results. Meanwhile, the results prove that the design is effective.Chapter 5 is a summary of the research work in this dissertation in the end.