Micro-electroforming metallic bipolar electrodes for mini-DMFC stacks

This paper describes the development of metallic bipolar plate fabrication using micro-electroforming process for mini-DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell) stacks. Ultraviolet (UV) lithography was used to define micro-fluidic channels using a photomask and exposure process. Micro-fluidic channels mold with 300 micrometers thick and 500 micrometers wide were firstly fabricated in a negative photoresist onto a stainless steel plate. Copper micro-electroforming was used to replicate the micro-fluidic channels mold. Following by sputtering silver (Ag) with 1.2 micrometers thick, the metallic bipolar plates were completed. The silver layer is used for corrosive resistance. The completed mini-DMFC stack is a 2x2 cm2 fuel cell stack including a 1.5x1.5 cm2 MEA (membrane electrode assembly). Several MEAs were assembly into mini-DMFC stacks using the completed metallic bipolar plates. All test results showed the metallic bipolar plates suitable for mini-DMFC stacks. The maximum output power density is 9.3mW/cm2 and current density is 100 mA/cm2 when using 8 vol. % methanol as fuel and operated at temperature 30 degrees C. The output power result is similar to other reports by using conventional graphite bipolar plates. However, conventional graphite bipolar plates have certain difficulty to be machined to such micro-fluidic channels. The proposed micro-electroforming metallic bipolar plates are feasible to miniaturize DMFC stacks for further portable 3C applications.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Zirconium carbide as an electrocatalyst for the chromous-chromic redox couple

Zirconium carbide is used as a catalyst in a REDOX cell for the oxidation of chromous ions to chromic ions and for the reduction of chromic ions to chromous ions. The zirconium carbide is coated on an inert electronically conductive electrode which is present in the anode fluid of the cell

Effective range expansion in various scenarios of EFT(\notpi)

Using rigorous solutions, we compare the ERE parameters obtained in three different scenarios of EFT(\notpi) in nonperturbative regime. A scenario with unconventional power counting (like KSW) is shown to be disfavored by the PSA data, while the one with elaborate prescription of renormalization but keeping conventional power counting intact seems more promising.Comment: 6 pages, 3 tables, no figure, revtex4-1, minor revisions, to appear in EP

Warped embeddings between Einstein manifolds

Warped embeddings from a lower dimensional Einstein manifold into a higher dimensional one are analyzed. Explicit solutions for the embedding metrics are obtained for all cases of codimension 1 embeddings and some of the codimension n>1 cases. Some of the interesting features of the embedding metrics are pointed out and potential applications of the embeddings are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Some High Temperature Diffusion Studies on Materials of Thermionic Interest

High temperature diffusion studies between uranium materials and refractory metals and alloys - thermionic emission propertie