INTEGRATED MICRO PEM FUEL CELL WITH SELF-REGULATED HYDROGEN GENERATION FROM AMMONIA BORANE

摘要

The demand for power sources with superior performance has increased as a result of the rapid growth of the portable electronics market, such as cell phones, global positioning systems (GPS), personal digital assistants (PDA), digital cameras, and laptop computers. This growth has compelled the scientific community to investigate possible power sources with high power and energy densities to deliver high performance and support a long operation time1, 2. Compared to rechargeable batteries, hydrogen proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells have shown the potential to offer high energy densities if high energy density fuels can be used2, 3. However, having a reliable and efficient on-board hydrogen generator is still one of the main challenges for micro hydrogen PEM fuel cells. In order to solve this problem, we have previously demonstrated a self-circulated and self-regulated microfluidic hydrogen generator for micro fuel cell applications without parasitic power consumption4.