Micro-Fuel Cells for portable electronics

Manhattan Scientifics, Inc. is developing a mass-producible high-energy Micro-Fuel Cell electrical power system for cellular telephones, portable computers and other portable devices. This system will be smaller, lighter, simpler, cleaner and less expensive than rechargeable batteries. This truly portable power supply will be simply refueled with methanol, instead of being recharged. Our integrated design utilizes thin film vacuum deposition techniques to coat patterned etched-nuclear-particle-track plastic membranes. The process forms catalytically active surface area electrodes on either side of a single structured proton-exchange-membrane electrolyte. The non-bipolar cell stacks are built onto a single structured membrane by building through-membrane contacts, through-cell water control, thin film electrodes, and electrode breaks on the plastic membrane. Our production techniques are ideal for roll-to-roll mass production while minimizing the use of expensive catalysts. In this talk, we will present our progress in the last few months towards achieving a commercial product. (author)