Performance of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with fabricated carbon fiber cloth electrode

Thanks to its excellent conductivity, gas permeability, and corrosion resistance, carbon fiber cloth is widely used in many applications. The carbon electrodes used in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells consist of gas diffusion and catalyst layers. While most gas diffusion layers are made from carbon fiber paper or carbon fiber cloth, the use of conventional carbon fiber cloth to produce fuel cell electrodes may result in peeling fibers and material that is excessively soft and difficult to assemble. This study employs PAN-based carbon fiber cloth and uses phenolic resin to improve the structure and characteristics of the gas diffusion layer (GDL). This study focused on the material used in the GDL. Results indicate that an improved carbon fiber cloth can eliminate assembly difficulties. Investigation of the effect of different resin contents, revealed that GDL carbon fiber cloth with a relatively low resin content exhibits good through-plane resistance and thus offers good cell performance.