Stainless steel fiber felt as the anode diffusion backing and current collector for μ-DMFC

• SSFF was used to replace anode current collector and backing layer for μDMFC.
• The novel MEA has smaller cathode polarization by reducing methanol crossover.
• The novel MEA decreases anode polarization by improving mass transportation.

In this paper, a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) that uses a stainless steel fiber felt (SSFF) to replace the anode current collector and backing layer is designed and fabricated for a micro-direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). At the same time, a conventional MEA with carbon paper (CP) as the support layer of the anode gas diffusion layer was fabricated as a contrast experiment. To study the effect of the novel structure on the anode or cathode electrode process, a reference electrode was built inside a single cell. The results show that the novel MEA has a smaller cathode polarization by reducing the methanol crossover and provides a smaller anode polarization by improving the methanol transportation.

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