Porous Silicon as a Proton Exchange Membrane for Micro Fuel Cells

摘要

The porous silicon was developed as a proton exchange membrane for micro fuel cells. The pores in size of 1-6 μm penetrated through the silicon wafer were prepared by anodic etching with back illumination. The porous silicon filled with electrolyte, i.e. porous silicon membrane (PSM) shows low methanol permeability and proton conductivity compared with Nafion117 membrane. The PSM was assembled to the passive DMFC test cell using conventional electrodes. For the feed of high concentration of methanol, we obtained higher power density and current density than conventional Nafion117 membrane.