Thermal constraints of PEM micro fuel cells for portable electronics

Despite increasingly efficient components and low-power technologies, the energy demands of portable electronic products will rise dramatically in the future due to their growing functionality. As improvements in battery technology have so far been limited to energy density increases of only a few percent per annum, over the past few years many R&D activities have concentrated on alternative forms of portable power supply. One of the most promising candidates is micro fuel cells (FCs) based on polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) [1-3].