Tokyo Friendfinder
More good news for those of us still waiting for practical fuel cells for our gadgets; Sony has developed a new technology that it says could help produce the world’s most efficient DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell) yet.
While a prototype won’t be coming until next year, Sony has developed a film that uses buckyballs (Fullerenes) that should help fuel cells reach a power density of about 100 milliwatt-hours per square centimeter.
The formula Sony has developed uses the buckyballs arranged in clumps of eight. Sony is mixing them in a polymer to form a barrier that makes for thinner membranes. The goo helps stop the penetration of oxygen across the fuel cell’s membrane and stops methanol leakage, which in turn boosts the power density…or so the Sony boffins say.
The company is understandably cautious about when it can start making DMFCs and won’t say how long its going to be before the film slips into DMFCs and the DFMCs slip into products. But, according to Sony’s Yuriko Nakatani, the technology looks like a significant step in the right direction toward the development of DMFCs powerful enough to supplement or replace lithium batteries for handheld gadgets.
Methanol leakage and power output have been the devilish details that have stopped DMFCs becoming widespread, along with regulations that are still being hammered out to allow methanol to be carried aboard passenger aircraft, and a methanol fuel infrastructure, i.e. being able to pick up refills at Japan’s ubiquitous konbini (convenience stores) for example.
Breakthroughs with DMFCs are announced regularly in Japan, Canon being the most recent. A number of companies have announced advances with DMFCs for portable gadgets, particularly Hitachi, Toshiba and Fujitsu. This year’s CEATEC show, as we highlighted before, demonstrated that progress continues to be made.
The flip side of this is that while there have been lots of claims of breakthroughs and almost as many delays in commercialization. A few years back NEC claimed it had reached a then-highest power density of 100 milliwatts per square centimeter using an exotic DMFC design based on the company’s carbon nanohorn technology, but had to pull back from its goal of commercializing the technology.
Sony believes that 100 milliwatts is the start line for power density but others, notably the boffins at NTT think this is far too low. The bottom line is we don’t expect miracle battery replacements from Sony soon, but we are glad to see that it is finally taking the wraps of its stealth DMFC development program and working toward fuel cells that, we hope, should prolong our digital gadget joy…
(Via Sony)
01:07 PM 
Paul Kallender •
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Reader Comments
Let us know what you think about this story.
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For provincial Americans: “boffin” is just a fancy Brit word for NERD.
Posted by Sith on 05/12/04 at 04:28 PM -
For overly condescending and presumptuous limeys, “botard” is just a fancy American word for moron.
Posted by mmhm on 05/12/04 at 05:13 PM -
I thought it was “dotard”. Botard sounds like a derogatory term for bohemian derived from dotard, like bohonky. Best.
Hobos, Sasquatch, Chupacabra and more.
Posted by huck on 05/12/04 at 08:32 PM -
For Venusians, “puffin” is a kind of geeky bird.
Posted by Mal on 05/12/04 at 09:05 PM -
According to Engrish.com, ‘botard’ seems to be a crispy, cheesy junkfood. In Japan anyways.
Posted by me2 on 05/12/04 at 09:27 PM -
“Boffin” has underpinnings of serious respect & status. Whereas “Nerd” has overtones of negativity.
More on-topic, lets hope this works. More technical details would be good.
Posted by adrian on 05/12/04 at 10:12 PM -
Anyhow far away from topic, your english lingo class is fully appreciated (and I think I am talking for all non english speaking people out there)
Posted by foreigner on 05/12/04 at 10:32 PM -
The idea that boffin=nerd shows poor understanding of its origins.
Boffins are serious, if perhaps excessively single-minded, scientists. Nerds are people who should get a life.
Think Barnes Wallis and World War II, the one that started in 1939 in the civilized world.
Posted by Michael Kenward on 05/12/05 at 01:41 AM -
While the rest of you are pondering linguistics, I will continue to daydream about banging the Japanese gal with the polymer… :D
Posted by Explodey on 05/12/05 at 04:44 AM -
It’s sort of funny because the thing she’s holding up looks like some sort of a cross between a fruit roll-up and a beef jerky. I’d wear rubber gloves too ...
Posted by jms on 05/12/05 at 05:24 AM -
How would ‘geek’ rank against ‘boffin’? The image of ‘geek’ may be perceived to contain somewhat too much youth, while ‘boffins’ may be somewhat older - how about ‘aged geek’?
Posted by pms on 05/12/05 at 06:01 AM -
“milliwatt-hours per square centimeter” is not a measure of power density.
Posted by archibald on 05/12/05 at 06:56 AM -
She could hold my beef jerky.
Posted by wanker on 05/12/05 at 11:41 PM -
Are you guys out of your mind? have you seen at the chick’s face? what in God’s name is that filthy color? Is she dead ill or what? get some tan, for crying out loud!
Posted by cacatua on 05/12/06 at 12:40 AM -
The milliwat-hour per cm is the pek rate for how much methane consumption. How do you supply methane or store it for a mobile device. How does heat eefect the performance of fuel cell in this case.
Posted by Shieko on 05/12/06 at 04:45 PM -
“100 milliwatts per square centimeter” is the correct quote (or correct spelling is centimetre) and there is no reference to hours in the article (what was in the Sony info?).
100mW/cm^2 is power density (max. rate of supply). 100mWh/cm^2 would be energy density and relates to the total energy stored or potentially delivered for a given volume under specific test conditions.
Posted by tygrus on 05/12/10 at 08:53 PM