Slot-die-coating operability windows for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell cathode catalyst layers

被引：34

作者：

Creel, Erin B. ^{[1
]}

Tjiptowidjojo, Kristianto ^{[2
]}

Lee, J. Alex ^{[3
]}

Livingston, Kelsey M. ^{[1
]}

Schunk, P. Randall ^{[2
,4
]}

Bell, Nelson S. ^{[4
]}

Serov, Alexey ^{[1
]}

Wood, David L., III ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Oak Ridge Natl Lab, Elctrificat & Energy Infrastruct Div, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 USA

[2] Univ New Mexico, Ctr Microengineered Mat, Albuquerque, NM 87131 USA

[3] St Gobain Res North Amer, Northborough, MA 01532 USA

[4] Sandia Natiodal Labs, Albuquerque, NM 87185 USA

来源：

JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE | 2022年 / 610卷

关键词：

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell; Gas diffusion electrode; Slot-die coating; Cathode catalyst layer; Roll-to-roll manufacturing; LOW-FLOW LIMIT; BATTERY ELECTRODES; PERFORMANCE;

D O I：

10.1016/j.jcis.2021.11.047

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：

Roll-to-roll (R2R) slot-die coating of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) catalyst layers represents a scalable deposition method for producing 10-20 m(2).min(-1) of catalyst-coated gas diffusion layers (GDLs). This high-throughput production technique will help lower the cost of PEMFC catalyst layers. The uniformity of the wet layer applied by slot die deposition is affected by process parameters such as substrate speed, vacuum pressure applied at the upstream meniscus, gap between the slot die lips and substrate, ink rheology, and other ink and substrate properties. The set of conditions for producing a defect-free coating with a dilute ink typically requires little to no upstream vacuum pressure, so suitable operating conditions can be found easily through trial and error and operator intuition. However, the higher viscosity of more concentrated inks dramatically shifts the range of settings that result in a homogeneous coating to higher vacuum levels, which are harder to find through hit or miss. A predictive model showing the range of operable conditions decreases material wastage inherent in experimentally searching for suitable parameters. In this study, the defect-free coating parameter window is explored experimentally and theoretically for two concentrations of PEFC cathode inks. Both a full capillary hydrodynamic model and a computationally cheaper viscocapillary model successfully predict the experimentally determined coating window within the experimental and model uncertainty limits for inks with 5.3 wt% and 12.0 wt% solids ink while maintaining the 0.1 mg(Pt).cm.Pt-2 areal loading target. This paper demonstrates a viable pathway for meeting the $30/kW(net) ultimate cost target of the United States Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) Hydrogen Fuel Cells Technologies Office (HFTO). The concentrated ink lowers the thermal energy and capital expenditure (CapEx) budget of the coating process by decreasing the amount of time, energy, and floorspace required for drying the coating. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

引用

页码：474 / 485

页数：12