Improvement of cold start performance of polymer electrolyte fuel cell using microporous and gas diffusion layers with patterned wettability

Abstract

This study aimed to improve the cold start characteristics of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) by applying patterned wettability to its microporous layer (MPL) and gas diffusion layer (GDL). An internal cell of the fuel cell stack, which was under adiabatic conditions on both sides, was targeted for cold start in this study. The adiabatic cell was simulated by adding sidemounted heaters to a normal experimental cell to adjust the cell temperature. Experimental measurements were performed for three different combinations of GDLs and MPLs: conventional MPL (C-MPL) and conventional GDL (C-GDL), hybrid MPL (H-MPL) and C-GDL, and dual H-MPL and hybrid GDL

Photo-reduced Synthesis of Ag Fe/NC Nanoparticles and their Visible-Light-Enhanced Electrocatalytic Performances

“…Fuel cell is one of the most promising power generation technologies from the perspective of energy saving and ecological environment protection. [1][2][3][4][5] However, the cathode in the fuel cell lacks stable and effective oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts, which has severely limited the performances of fuel cells. 6,7 In addition, due to high price, low reserves and poor stability, the best platinum-based catalysts so far cannot meet the needs of large-scale development of fuel cells.…”