Microporous layer to carbon fibre substrate interface impact on polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell performance

被引：37

作者：

Lee, J. ^{[1
]}

Liu, H. ^{[1
]}

George, M. G. ^{[1
]}

Banerjee, R. ^{[1
]}

Ge, N. ^{[1
]}

Chevalier, S. ^{[1
]}

Kotaka, T. ^{[2
]}

Tabuchi, Y. ^{[2
]}

Bazylak, A. ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Toronto, Fac Appl Sci & Engn, Inst Sustainable Energy, Thermofluids Energy & Adv Mat Lab,Dept Mech & Ind, Toronto, ON, Canada

[2] Nissan Motor Co LTD, EV Syst Lab, Res Div 2, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan

来源：

JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES | 2019年 / 422卷

基金：

加拿大创新基金会; 加拿大健康研究院; 加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;

关键词：

Sheet microporous layer; Stand-alone microporous layer; Microporous layer intrusion; Synchrotron X-ray radiography; Oxygen diffusion resistance; GAS-DIFFUSION LAYERS; MICRO-POROUS LAYER; LIQUID WATER DISTRIBUTION; ACCELERATED DEGRADATION; COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY; MASS-TRANSPORT; DISTRIBUTIONS; THICKNESS; PEMFC; PERMEABILITY;

D O I：

10.1016/j.jpowsour.2019.02.099

中图分类号：

O64 [物理化学（理论化学）、化学物理学];

学科分类号：

070304 ; 081704 ;

摘要：

This work provides a comprehensive study on the pore structure and performance of a coated microporous layer (MPL) and a novel sheet MPL for the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell. We characterize the MPLs using micro-computed tomography, illustrating that the degree and unevenness of MPL intrusion are substantially reduced with the sheet MPL. In-operando X-ray synchrotron imaging reveals a highly surprising observation, whereby the sheet MPL facilitates superior electrochemical performance despite exhibiting higher quantities of liquid water accumulation within the GDL compared to the coated MPL. To further explain this counter-intuitive performance of the sheet MPL, liquid water transport within the GDL is simulated via pore network modeling, and the oxygen diffusion resistance under partially saturated conditions for each GDL is calculated. Under partially saturated conditions, the oxygen transport resistance of the MPL-substrate transition region dominates the overall performance of the PEM fuel cell, and we attribute the superior performance of the sheet MPL to the 10% lower oxygen diffusion resistance in the transition region compared to that of the conventional coated MPL. This work highlights how the interplay between liquid water saturation combined with partially saturated oxygen diffusion resistance must be considered in GDL design for next generation PEM fuel cells.

引用

页码：113 / 121

页数：9

共 47 条

[1] Balancing mass transport resistance and membrane resistance when tailoring microporous layer thickness for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells operating at high current densities [J].