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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