Application of ployvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoroprorylene in gas diffusion layer of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

The porosity, permeability and other factors of gas diffusion layer (GDL) has a significant impact on the proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance (PEMFC). In this paper, Polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE) was substituted by polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene(PVDF-HFP) compared with the conventional preparing method of GDL. PVDF-HFP was used in this paper due to it's a semi-crystalline polymer, whose crystalline phase provides good thermal stability while the amorphous phase adds some flexibility, including excellent chemical resistance, thermal resistance and oxidation resistance. Physical properties of PVDF-HFP-based the support layers (SL) involving microstructure, hydrophobicity, gas permeability and performance of PEMFC were investigated. The results show that the GDL based on PVDF-HFP-based the support layers can improve the performance of PEMFC. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.