Direct formic acid micro-fuel Cell

R.S. Jayashree, IS. Spendelow, I Yeom, C. Rastogi, M.A. Shannon, and P.IA. Kenis, Characterization and application of electrodeposited Pt, Pt/Pd, and Pd catalyst structures for direct formic acid micro fuel cells, Electrochimica Acta, 50(24) (2005) 4674 682. 

The University of Illinios (Yeom et al.) demonstrated the fabrication of a monolithic Si-based micro-scale MEA consisting of two Si electrodes, with catalyst deposited directly on them, supporting a Nafion - 12 membrane in-between [12]. The electrodes are identically gold-covered for current collecting, and are covered with electrodeposited Pt black. The electrodes and the Nafion membrane are sandwiched and hot-pressed to form the MEA. The complete fuel cells have been tested with various fuels H2, methanol and formic acid and reached 35 mW cm , 0.38 mW cm and 17 mW cm , respectively, at RT with forced Oj. More recently, performances with formic acid as fuel were increased up to 28 mW cm" with electrodeposited Pd-containing catalyst at the anode [13]. 

---