Development of a Passive Mini-Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell: Effect of Mea Assembly Parameters by Hot Pressure

• Triviño-Bolaños, Diego F. ^[1] ; López-Martínez, Gustavo A. ^[1] ; Camargo-Amado, Rubén J. ^[1] ; Lizcano-Valbuena, William H. ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad del Valle (Colombia)

     Universidad del Valle (Colombia)

     Colombia

     
• Localización: Revista de Ciencias Universidad del Valle, ISSN-e 2248-4000, ISSN 0121-1935, Vol. 17, Nº. Extra 3, 2013 (Ejemplar dedicado a: ESPECIAL DE QUÍMICA), págs. 95-103
• Idioma: español
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• Resumen

  • This paper presents preliminary results on the design, construction and evaluation of a passive mini direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC), capillary fed with 2 mol l-1 aqueous ethanol, at a rate of 2.03 μL min-1, and air oxygen in the cathode through an air vent. Parameters such as pressure, temperature and time of manufacturing a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) by hot-pressure were evaluated. As the electrode holder used a 0.25 cm2 carbon tissue which was deposited on the catalytic layer (C. L.) for both the anode (0.8 mg cm-2of PtRu/C) and the cathode (0.8 mg cm -2of Pt/C), Nafi on® 115 membranes were used as the electrolyte. The results show, an average power density of 302 μWcm2 under the best conditions used, a catalytic layer with a Nafi on percentage of 50% at 25 °C. A temperature of 125 °C, a pressure of 49.2 Kg/cm2, and 90 seconds duration were used to obtain the MEA.