• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.329-334
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• 2009

This study is to develop a fuel cell system applicable to an in situ NMR (Nuclear magnetic resonance) diagnosis. The in situ NMR can be used in real time monitoring of various reactions occurring in the fuel cell, such as oxidation of fuel, reduction of oxygen, transport phenomena, and component degradation. The fuel cell for this purpose is, however, to be operated in a specifically designed tubular shape toroid cavity detector (TCD), which constrains the fuel cell to have a tubular shape. This may cause difficulties in effective mass transport of reactants/products and uniform distribution of assembly pressure. Therefore, a new flow field designed in a particular way is necessary to enhance the mass transport in the tubular fuel cell. In this study, a tubular-shaped close-type flow field made of non-magnetic material is developed. With this flow field, oxygen is effectively delivered to the cathode surface and the produced water is readily removed from the membrane-electrode assembly to prevent flooding. The resulting DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell) outperforms the open-type flow field and exhibits $36\;mW/cm^2$ even at room temperature.