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Update(MM/DD/YYYY):12/03/2003

Application of Porous Glass to DMFC with Modified Nano-Pore Surface

- Nano-Technology Materials for DMFC -

Key Points

  1. It has been found that the use of porous glass as solid electrolyte in the fuel cell makes it possible to obtain higher cell voltage than before with high methanol concentration.
  2. Modifying the surface of nano-pore has proved to be effective for solid electrolyte of DMFC.
  3. This approach seems to indicate one of prospective ways for the development of fuel cell materials based on nano-technology.
  4. The study is expected to indicate the feasibility of overcoming the problem of so-called "methanol crossover".


Synopsis

The Special Division of Green Life Technology, the National Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) succeeded in manufacturing a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) based on the porous glass electrolyte developed by AIST in collaboration with New Glass Forum, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Himeji Institute of Technology (HIT) (press release, January 2003), and in leading to power generation. This demonstrates higher output with the fuel of high methanol concentration in comparison to the conventional fuel cells using perfluorosulfonate membrane, such as "Nafion".

In the DMFC, which is a promising power source for the next generation mobile instruments, the use of methanol fuel with high concentration inevitably causes extensive degradation of performance because of marked methanol crossover in conventional electrolyte membrane of perfluorosulfonate, such as Nafion. This requires to dilute methanol with water more than ten times, forcing the decrease in energy density.

The new technology based on nano-pore glass is expected to raise the output density of the DMFC system and to extend the operational time span of mobile instruments.


fig1
A schematic diagram of DMFC based on porous glass electrolyte membrane.

fig1
A picture of porous glass electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly.






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