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Characteristic behaviors on air-breathing direct methanol fuel cells

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Abstract

This paper investigated environmental effects of passive, air-breathing, and vapor-feeding direct methanol fuel cells (PAVDMFCs). In these experiments, main experimental parameters are temperature (30 °C, 40 °C) and relative humidity (25%, 75%). From these experimental results, the humidity plays a key role in terms of the water management at the cathode catalyst layer. During pure methanol feeding, the peak performance shows in relative humidity 25% and 40 °C. Under high humidity condition (relative humidity 75%), the water flooding of cathode blocks the oxygen reduction reaction at the cathode. The low humidity (relative humidity 25%) decreases the flooding of the cathode, in which the Warburg of relative humidity 25% decreases rather than that of relative humidity 75%. We concluded that rich water contents of the cathode slightly decrease activation overpotentials.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intelligent Convergence Systems, Seoul National University, Daehak-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 151-742

    Ikwhang Chang & Suk Won Cha

  2. School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Rd., Merced, CA, 95343, USA

    Minhwan Lee

  3. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Daehak-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 151-742

    Suk Won Cha

Authors
  1. Ikwhang Chang
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  2. Minhwan Lee
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Correspondence to Suk Won Cha.

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Chang, I., Lee, M. & Cha, S.W. Characteristic behaviors on air-breathing direct methanol fuel cells. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 13, 1141–1144 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-012-0151-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-012-0151-y

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