Effects of Anode Flow Field Design on CO2 Bubble Behavior in μDMFC

Sensors

Miaomiao Li²  Junsheng Liang²  Chong Liu²  Gongquan Sun¹ 

[1] Direct Alcohol Fuel Cell Laboratory, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Dalian, Liaoning Province, P. R. China;Key Laboratory for Micro/Nano Technology and System of Liaoning Province, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning Province, 116023, P.R. China; E-Mail:

关键词: μDMFC;    flow field;    pressure drop;    CO₂ bubbles;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s90503314

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Clogging of anode flow channels by CO₂ bubbles is a vital problem for further performance improvements of the micro direct methanol fuel cell (μDMFC). In this paper, a new type anode structure using the concept of the non-equipotent serpentine flow field (NESFF) to solve this problem was designed, fabricated and tested. Experiments comparing the μDMFC with and without this type of anode flow field were implemented using a home-made test loop. Results show that the mean-value, amplitude and frequency of the inlet-to-outlet pressure drops in the NESFF is far lower than that in the traditional flow fields at high μDMFC output current. Furthermore, the sequential images of the CO₂ bubbles as well as the μDMFC performance with different anode flow field pattern were also investigated, and the conclusions are in accordance with those derived from the pressure drop experiments. Results of this study indicate that the non-equipotent design of the μDMFC anode flow field can effectively mitigate the CO₂ clogging in the flow channels, and hence lead to a significant promotion of the μDMFC performance.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2009 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.