The gas diffusion layer (GDL) is a critical component of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, and can play a key role in fuel cell performance. In order to design reliable and durable fuel cells, knowledge of the GDL microstructure is necessary. Currently, characterization of GDLs is generally based on porosity measurements to obtain a pore size distribution. However, the pore size distribution in GDLs may not be the only factor that affects the fuel cell performance. Additional microstructural characterization of GDLs manufactured by three different vendors (Toray, SGL, and Freudenberg) has been investigated. In addition to the pore size distribution, other statistical information of GDL microstructure including size, shape, orientation, and distribution of pores have been characterized and compared. Among these GDLs, the Freudenberg sample was found to have the smallest pore size and orientation analysis indicated that the pores were randomly distributed. Pore roundness was the lowest and pore clustering was highest in Toray sample. The effect of threshold setting on pore size data was also studied and found to have negligible influence on the calculated distributions. The microstructures of the GDLs were reconstructed in three‐dimension using computer simulations and good agreement with the two‐dimensional image analysis data was observed. The present work opens new opportunities for experimentalists and modelers in the area of fuel cell research to take into account the statistical characteristics of GDL microstructure.
High-quality ceramics based heteroepitaxial structures of oxide-nitride-semiconductors, i.e., SrTiO3/TiN/Si(100) have been fabricated by in situ pulsed laser deposition. The dependence of substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure on the crystalline quality of the SrTiO3 films on Si with epitaxial TiN template has been examined. We found that epitaxial growth occurs on TiN/Si(100) above 500 °C, initially at a reduced O2 pressure (10−6 Torr), and followed by a deposition in the range of 5–10×10−4 Torr. X-ray diffraction (Θ, ω, and Φ scans) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) results revealed an excellent alignment of SrTiO3 and TiN films on Si(100) with a cube-on-cube epitaxy. Rutherford backscattering and ion channeling results show a channeling minimum yield (χmin) of ∼13% for the SrTiO3 films. High-resolution TEM results on the SrTiO3/TiN interface show that the epitaxial SrTiO3 film is separated from the TiN by an uniform 80–90 Å crystalline interposing layer presumably of TiNxO1−x (oxy-nitride). The SrTiO3 film fabricated at 700 °C showed a high relative dielectric constant of 312 at the frequency of 1 MHz. The electrical resistivity and the breakdown field of the SrTiO3 films were more than 5×1012 Ω cm and 6×105 V cm−1, respectively. An estimated leakage current density measured at an electric field of 5×105 V/cm−1 was less than 10−7 A/cm2.
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