Patent Application
20060194099
The present invention is related to a flexible fuel cell, especially to utilize the flexible substrate as the material required for the structure to construct versatile geometry shapes of flexible fuel cell structures.
The conventional fuel cell is to respectively offer hydrogen-included fuel and oxygen-included air on both sides of the proton exchange membrane to form the current loop by the oxidation-reduction reaction and therefore provide the electricity needed. This kind of fuel cell usually has a huge structure to provide a reactive environment and the fuel storage to make its suitable product constrained by a huge equipment like Cogeneration, power plant, car, submarine and space ship. However, from the demand point of view, many portable power requirements like versatile digital apparatuses of mobile phone, portable PC, walkman and camera need such a fuel cell of cheapness, long-time power supply, small volume, light weight and suitable for versatile environments. Although the conventional fuel cell has the merits of being economical and long-term usage, it is limited by the conventional structure to fail commonly used in many products. Therefore, the present invention, based on the disadvantages of used fuel cells to improve, invents a flexible fuel cell.
The main object of the present invention is to provide a flexible fuel cell which is able to construct versatile geometry shapes and appearance structures to comply with the versatile usage requirement of cells.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a flexible fuel cell which comprises at least one fuel supply unit and at least one power supply unit and is characterized in that: each fuel supply unit has the flow guiding structure of plural fuel channels to offer the fuel for the reaction demand of the power supply unit; each power supply unit is constructed by piling an anode current collection layer, a first flexible substrate, a membrane electrode assembly layer, a second flexible substrate and a cathode current collection layer in order, wherein the first flexible substrate and the second substrate are constructed by the flexible insulators, and the first flexible substrate and the second flexible substrate form plural air vents to make each air vent of the first flexible substrate match the above fuel channel of the fuel supply unit to output the fuel, and also the second flexible substrate is able to input oxygen-included air; the anode current collection layer and cathode current collection layer are respectively placed on the first flexible substrate and the second flexible substrate to form to match the current guiding loop and control circuit of the membrane electrode assembly layer; the membrane electrode assembly layer forms plural regions for the current production by chemical reaction and is placed between the bottom surface of the first flexible substrate and the top surface of the second flexible substrate.
In order to make those familiar with the art understand the objects, characteristics and improvements, the present invention is described in details by way of the following embodiments and attached figures.
The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the appended drawings wherein:
The present invention provides a flexible fuel cell which mainly utilizes the flexible substrate as the required substrate for the structure, for instance, using the flexible copper foil substrate made of copper foil and resin to construct the flexible fuel cell structure with versatile geometry shapes and appearance structures. Referring to
Fuel supply unit 2 has a flow guiding structure for plural fuel channels 21 to offer the methanol fuel or other fuels of possibly ionizing hydrogen atom required for the reaction of power supply unit 3. Furthermore, there are possibly plural fuel troughs 23 in the fuel supply unit 2 to store and offer the fuel for fuel channels 21.
Power supply unit 3 is constructed by piling an anode current collection layer 31, a first flexible substrate 331, a membrane electrode assembly layer 35, a second flexible substrate 332 and a cathode current collection layer 37 in order, wherein both first flexible substrate 331 and second flexible substrate 332 are constructed by the flexible insulator of epoxy or prepreg, and also both first flexible substrate 331 and second flexible substrate 332 form plural conducting holes to make each conducting hole 33a in the first substrate 331 matching the flow channel 21 of the above fuel supply unit 2 input the fuel; the second flexible substrate 332 possibly inputs the oxygen-included air. Anode current collection layer 31 and cathode current collection layer 37 are respectively placed on the first flexible substrate 331 and the second flexible substrate 332 and form the circuitry required for matching the current guiding loop and control circuit of the membrane electrode assembly layer 35 which forms plural regions to produce the current by the chemical reaction and is placed between the bottom surface of first flexible substrate 331 and the top surface of second flexible substrate 332.
The manufacture of the above anode current collection layer 31 and cathode current collection layer 37 utilizes the means of traditional print circuit board (PCB) process to plate the chemical copper with a thickness of 10 u to 50 u inches over whole substrates after drilling the flexible substrates 331 and 332, and again plates the copper with a thickness of 200 u to 500 u inches to therefore proceed film lamination, photo exposure, develop, and then plates the gold with a thickness of 3 u to 10 u inches and further etches the circuitry required for the current guiding loop and control circuit, accordingly completes the manufacture of anode current collection layer 31 and cathode current collection layer 37.
The above fuel supply unit 2 is possible a structure of independent and filling the fuel, and respectively forms each fuel channel 21 by plural channels to offer the fuel to every membrane electrode assembly units 351 of the membrane electrode assembly layer 35 in the power supply unit 3 so as to react with the oxygen under the oxidation-reduction reaction to produce a current loop.
Referring to
The above pillar structure of power supply unit 3 is possibly according to the requirement to form many geometries like the cylinder or triangle pillar or square pillar or hexagonal pillar or cubic, therefore, it possibly forms the shape of conventional alkaline battery or other battery shapes to provide the usage for these kinds of battery apparatuses.
Each fuel channel 21 in the above fuel supply unit 2 is possibly constructed by the flow guiding structure placed on a flexible substrate, and the flexible structure of the fuel supply unit 2 is possibly stacked on power supply unit 3 and also forms a pillar structure.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The above fuel supply unit 2 is respectively formed on the internal surface of the anode current collection layer 31 of the internal power supply unit 3 and the external surface of the anode current collection layer 31 of the external power unit 3.
The above flow control valve 5 includes a fan to provide air input and conduct into the membrane electrode assembly units 351 of membrane electrode assembly layer 35 in the power supply unit 3 by the air flow channel 4 for the oxidation-reduction reaction.
The above flow control valve 5 includes a flow switch to provide stopping or opening the air input so as to achieve the stopping or opening the air input to conduct into the membrane electrode assembly layer 35 of power supply unit 3 and therefore cease the oxidation-reduction reaction.
Referring to
Referring to
The present invention flexible fuel cell has the following effects:
Although the present invention has been disclosed one embodiment as the above, it does not imply to limit the present invention, any person who is skilled in the art can make any change or modification within the spirit and scope of the present invention, however, it is belongs to the scope of the present invention, the protective scope of the present invention is defined by the following claims.
