Fabrication and characterization of a micro-fuel cell made of metallized PMMA

In this work we purpose the fabrication and characterization of a micro-fuel cell prototype based on the low mass density polymer poly(methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA), having low aspect ratio micro-channels, which were superficially metallized via sputter deposition technique. For current collector and anticorrosion coatings we employed different high electrical conductivity materials such as copper, molybdenum and gold. Metallic coatings were physically and chemically characterized by using scanning electron microscopy for the topographical analysis, X-ray diffraction for the structural analysis and energy dispersive spectroscopy for composition analysis. The electrical and electrochemical parameters obtained for the prototype cell were: a mean open circuit potential of 855 mV, a maximum electrical power density of 73 μW cm−2 at 182 μA cm−2 and 380 mV.