Resumen de Development of a Passive Mini-Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell: Effect of Mea Assembly Parameters by Hot Pressure
Diego F. Triviño Bolaños, Gustavo Adolfo López Martínez, Rubén J. Camargo Amado, William Hernando Lizcano Valbuena
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.
