Development of a passive direct methanol fuel cell stack for portable applications

In this work, we describe the fabrication of a room temperature operating direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) device for portable electronic devices and its performance as an electrical power source for portable phone. The cell stack is completely passive without external pumps or other ancillary devices. It takes oxygen from the surrounding air, whereas the methanol solution is stored in a built-in reservoir. We achieved a maximum power as high as 2 W, which is largely commensurate with cell phone requirements. The DMFC coupled to DC-to-DC converter was capable of powering a cell phone. The maximum power consumption for talk mode was of 1.2 W while 1.8 W was withdrawn from the stack when receiving a call.