Experimental investigations on performance of passive direct methanol fuel cell using Nickel-201 and brass current collector materials

To attract and get a major share of the passive direct methanol fuel cell in the global market, optimization of the influencing parameters like system durability, effectiveness, productivity, availability, and competitive price are to be balanced for achieving the excellent performance of cell for electricity generation and charging portable electronic devices. Among the fabricated assembly of cell hardware components, current collectors play as one of the key components. Therefore, the selection of suitable materials and its novel design are the most important characteristics that ultimately affect fuel cell performance. The required characteristics of the materials of current collectors are better electrical conductivity and good corrosion resistance having chemical compatibility in methanol solution. Experimental examination of the effect of high electrical conducting together with corrosion resistance metallic current collectors fabricated with Nickel-201 and Brass at various concentrations of methanol solution are carried out and compared with the Austenitic Stainless Steel 316L current collector having with the same geometry, aspect ratio, and effective opening area. Polarization curves and power density characteristics have been drawn for comparison of the performance of current collectors and to determine maximum power density. Among these current collectors, the best power density obtained is 10.416 mW cm−2 using Nickel-201 current collectors at a 5-molar concentration. The corrosion compatibility tests showed degradation of current collector materials with a short-term cell operation of 12 h and long-term cell operation of 120 h.