A Flexible Foldable Tubular mu DMFC for Powering Wearable Devices

作者：Wu, Zonglin; Kuang, Xuanlin; Liu, Litian; Wang, Xiaohong^*

来源：Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 2017, 26(5): 1147-1154.

DOI：10.1109/JMEMS.2017.2718219

• Micro direct methanol fuel cell (mu DMFC)
• flexible fuel cell
• foldable fuel cell
• wearable devices

This paper demonstrates a flexible tubular passive micro direct methanol fuel cell (mu DMFC) featured by flexible electrodes and foldable whole structure for powering wrist bands the first time. A novel foldable structure, its fabrication, and assembly method proposed are usable for the flexible tubular mu DMFCs and even other multi-layer flexible microfluidic devices. The test results show that the prototype achieves a power density of 15.3 mWcm(-2) and a maximum output of 38 mW at room temperature. After 100 bending cycles (180 bending angle), the performance of the mu DMFC decreases about 7.8%. Furthermore, the assembled mu DMFC with a dc-dc converter is integrated into a wrist band to power an LED and dc motor (25 mW) for about 21 h with consumption of 1-mL methanol solution (50 wt%). It is believed that this mu DMFC is applicable to serve as the power unit for wrist bands (typically 1 similar to 20 mW) or even other wearable devices.

• 出版日期2017-10
• 单位清华大学