title: In-situ monitoring of internal local temperature and voltage of proton exchange membrane fuel cells.
abstract: The distribution of temperature and voltage of a fuel cell are key factors that influence performance. Conventional sensors are normally large, and are also useful only for making external measurements of fuel cells. Centimeter-scale sensors for making invasive measurements are frequently unable to accurately measure the interior changes of a fuel cell. This work focuses mainly on fabricating flexible multi-functional microsensors (for temperature and voltage) to measure variations in the local temperature and voltage of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) that are based on micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). The power density at 0.5 V without a sensor is 450 mW/cm(2), and that with a sensor is 426 mW/cm(2). Since the reaction area of a fuel cell with a sensor is approximately 12% smaller than that without a sensor, but the performance of the former is only 5% worse.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yuan Ze Fuel Cell Center, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. cylee@saturn.yzu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Chi-Yuan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Wei-Yuan
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Wei-Jung
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Hsieh
mesh_terms: D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011522:Protons; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011522:Protons