Selective CoSe 2 /C cathode catalyst for passive air-breathing alkaline anion exchange membrane m-direct methanol fuel cell (AEM-mDMFC) R.W. Verjulio a , J. Santander a,* , J. Ma b , N. Alonso-Vante b a Instituto de Microelectr onica de Barcelona, IMB-CNM (CSIC), Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain b IC2MP, UMR-CNRS 7285, Universit e de Poitiers, 4 rue Michel Brunet, 86022, Poitiers, France article info Article history: Received 23 December 2015 Accepted 23 January 2016 Available online 20 February 2016 Keywords: Alkaline anion exchange membrane Micro-fuel cells Direct methanol fuel cell Non-noble metal catalysts Tolerance to methanol crossover abstract In this work, carbon-supported CoSe 2 is used as a Pt-free cathode catalyst in a passive, air- breathing, alkaline anion exchange membrane m-direct methanol fuel cell (AEM-mDMFC). The obtained results demonstrate the improvement in the performance, when the device is operated at high fuel concentrations, if the proposed cathode catalyst is used instead of the standard Pt/C catalyst, due to the better tolerance to methanol crossover even in alkaline medium. This result reinforces the suitability of AEM-DMFC's as a promising op- tion for mobile devices powering. © 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Micro-fuel cells are considered as a promising alternative to batteries to power small portable devices both at the mini- (mobile phones, laptops, …) and at the micro-scales (micro- electromechanical systems (MEMS), wearables, …) [1e3]. In order to be implemented in the micro-scale, fuel cells must be designed in the simplest way, simplifying the added compo- nents usually found in standard size fuel cells to improve the performance of this electrochemical device, such as pumps or temperature control [4e7]. This principle guides research to- wards innovative new device architectures involving new materials which outperform traditional fuel cell components [8e15]. In this way, typical architectures for micro-fuel cells are based in the use of micro-channels driving liquid fuels by capillarity instead of pumping it through traditional bipolar plates. In this context, membrane-less micro-fluidic fuel cells could be considered as an alternative architecture which permits omitting the ion conducting membrane at the cost of maintaining anode and cathode electrolytes in continuous movement in laminar flow regime, which prevents mixing of both electrolytes. The fluidic condition and the small amount of produced energy limit, in this case, the application of these devices to specialized environments (lab-on-a-chip, in-vivo, …) [16e18]. For general purpose micro-scale applications alkaline anion exchange membrane micro-direct methanol fuel cells (AEM-mDMFC) are being considered as promising devices for further research as integrated power devices for the micro- systems field (PowerMEMS) [19e22]. The main advantage of this type of micro-fuel cell is related with the improved * Corresponding author. E-mail address: joaquin.santander@csic.es (J. Santander). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 41 (2016) 19595 e19600 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.01.132 0360-3199/© 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.