{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/82345"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/82345","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Efforts Towards Micro Fuel Cells","abstract":"In the second part of this work, we developed a new class of proton conductors based on nanoporous silicon. Proton conducting electrolytes are crucial components in fuel cells. However, the implementation of prevalent polymer electrolyte membranes leads to difficulties in manufacturing the fuel cell structure at the micron scale. Here we show that nanoporous silicon membranes with a thickness around 30∼50 microns exhibit comparable proton conductivities as polymer electrolyte membranes. A non-optimized prototype micro fuel cell made of a nanoporous silicon membrane (37 microns thick) shows very promising performance. While running on formic acid and oxygen, the highest open circuit voltage is 0.79 V and the current density is 13.3 mA/cm2. These initial results show that nanoporous silicon membranes are very promising materials for electrolyte applications especially in silicon-based micro fuel cells. The technique can also be useful for other applications involving proton conduction.","abstract_html":"In the second part of this work, we developed a new class of proton conductors based on nanoporous silicon. Proton conducting electrolytes are crucial components in fuel cells. However, the implementation of prevalent polymer electrolyte membranes leads to difficulties in manufacturing the fuel cell structure at the micron scale. Here we show that nanoporous silicon membranes with a thickness around 30∼50 microns exhibit comparable proton conductivities as polymer electrolyte membranes. A non-optimized prototype micro fuel cell made of a nanoporous silicon membrane (37 microns thick) shows very promising performance. While running on formic acid and oxygen, the highest open circuit voltage is 0.79 V and the current density is 13.3 mA/cm2. These initial results show that nanoporous silicon membranes are very promising materials for electrolyte applications especially in silicon-based micro fuel cells. The technique can also be useful for other applications involving proton conduction.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lu, Chang"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Chemical Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Masel, Richard I."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-09-25T20:43:12Z","date_published":"2015-09-25T20:43:12Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:18Z","subjects":["Energy"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["(MiAaPQ)AAI3070373"],"render_values":[{"text":"(MiAaPQ)AAI3070373","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/82345","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Masel, Richard I."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lu, Chang"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2015-09-25T20:43:12Z","10000-01-01","2002"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Chemical Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Energy"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/82345","(MiAaPQ)AAI3070373"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["In the second part of this work, we developed a new class of proton conductors based on nanoporous silicon. 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However, the implementation of prevalent polymer electrolyte membranes leads to difficulties in manufacturing the fuel cell structure at the micron scale. Here we show that nanoporous silicon membranes with a thickness around 30∼50 microns exhibit comparable proton conductivities as polymer electrolyte membranes. A non-optimized prototype micro fuel cell made of a nanoporous silicon membrane (37 microns thick) shows very promising performance. While running on formic acid and oxygen, the highest open circuit voltage is 0.79 V and the current density is 13.3 mA/cm2. These initial results show that nanoporous silicon membranes are very promising materials for electrolyte applications especially in silicon-based micro fuel cells. The technique can also be useful for other applications involving proton conduction.","Made available in DSpace on 2015-09-25T20:43:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4848 bytes, checksum: 96035ab3f5e1c23cc7138a224ce498bd (MD5) 3070373.pdf: 8176192 bytes, checksum: 4a654fc5f6ab5774cae67c92755e2522 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2002","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 83626 Lift date: Forever Reason: Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","U of I Only","196 p.","Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002."],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/82345","(MiAaPQ)AAI3070373"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:subject":["Energy"],"dc:title":["Efforts Towards Micro Fuel Cells"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Chemical Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:18Z"}