We report on a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) with conductive silicon electrodes. In our design, the electrodes are made of silicon instead of carbon. We fabricated a porous structure at the bottom of the channels using the DRIE process. Pt catalyst was electrodeposited onto the surface of the electrodes. A Nafion 115 membrane was sandwiched between two 280-µm-thick electrodes with a micro porous structure 30 µm thick. Open circuit voltage of 150 mV was observed with 1M methanol feed. Maximum power density of 0.016 mW/cm² was achieved. Since the electrode and the channels are fabricated in a single wafer, it is possible to decrease the total thickness of the fuel cell by a using thinner wafer.

References :
Shinsuke Onoe, Hiroto Tanaka, Kazunori Hoshino, Kiyoshi Matsumoto, Isao Shimoyama, “Miniature Fuel Cell with Conductive Silicon Electrodes,” The 13th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (Transducers '05), pp. 1296-1299, Seoul, Korea, Jun. 5-9, 2005. [Proceedings]