Towards a compact SU-8 micro-direct methanol fuel cell

This paper presents an all-polymer micro-direct methanol fuel cell (microDMFC) fabricated with SU-8 photoresist. The present development exploits the capability of SU-8 components to bond to each other by a hot-pressing process and obtain a compact device. The device is formed by a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) sandwiched between two current collectors. The MEA consists of a porous SU-8 membrane filled with a proton exchange polymer and covered by a thin layer of carbon-based electrodes with a low catalyst loading (1.0 mg cm−2). The current collectors consist of two metalized SU-8 plates provided with a grid of through-holes that allow delivering the reactants to the MEA by diffusion. Fuel cell characterization was performed by measuring the polarization curves under different methanol concentrations and temperatures. The components were first tested using an external casing. A maximum power density of 4.15 mW cm−2 was measured with this assembly working with a 4 M methanol concentration and at a temperature of 40 °C. The components were then bonded to obtain a compact micro-direct methanol fuel cell that yielded a power density of 0.65 mW cm−2 under the same conditions. Despite this decrease in power density after bonding, the drastic reduction of the device dimensions resulted in an increase of more than 50 times the previous volumetric power density. The results obtained validate this novel approach to an all-polymer micro-fuel cell.