Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT, Korea) has developed a fuel cell that can run a notebook personal computer (PC) for 10 hours continuously. The fuel cell has a maximum output of 20 W and can run a PC of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. for 10 hours. It uses 100 ml of methanol solution for fuel, and employs the direct-methanol system, which directly supplies methanol solution to the fuel pole of the fuel cell.
According to SAIT, Samsung Electronics is scheduled to commercialize a notebook PC using a fuel cell around the end of 2005. SAIT said it has improved ways to apply the catalytic agent to the electrode for better output density. The research institute introduced a method to apply supporting materials evenly to particles whose diameter is about 2 nm. It uses Pt/Ru alloy for the catalytic agent. It has employed carbon nano-tubes with an aspect ratio of about 10. As a result, output density per unit area is 110 mW/cm² at 70 °C, and energy density per volume is about 200 mW/cm². Ion conductivity is between 0.07 and 0.145 S/cm with the range of 30 °C to 75 °C.
