The effect of temperature on the output characteristics of micro direct methanol fuel cell

In this paper, the effects of operating temperature on mass transport and micro direct methanol fuel cell (μDMFC) performance are presented. Furthermore, a whole two-dimensional model coupled with mass/momentum transports and temperature characteristic is established. Simulation results show that the temperature has significant effects on methanol concentration/CO2 distributions, crossover current density, and the polarization curve. The metal-based μDMFC with the effective area of 0.64 cm2 is fabricated using micro-stamping technology, and the detailed experimental validation is conducted. The results reveal that when the cell is supplied with a relatively low aqueous methanol flow rate, the peak power density exhibits a trend of initially going up, reaching the peak value of 85.3 mW cm−2 at 60 °C, and then dropping off. At the higher flow rate, however, a proportional relationship between the power density and temperature is obtained. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation.