The Fabrication of Flow Field Plates for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Using Lithography and Radio Frequency Sputtering

This study uses lithography to etch flow fields on a single side of a printed circuit board (PCB) and combines a flow field plate with a collector plate to make innovative anode flow field plates and cathode flow field plates for a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). TiO2 thin film is also sputtered on the anode flow field plate using radio frequency (RF) sputtering. The experimental results show that the prepared DMFC has a better maximum power density of 11.928 mW/cm2. Furthermore, when a TiO2 thin film is sputtered on the flow field plate of the assembled DMFC, the maximum power density is 14.426 mW/cm2, which is actually 21% more than that for a DMFC with no TiO2 thin film coated on the flow field plate.