Investigation of water transport in fuel cells using water transport plates and solid plates

Abstract

Water management of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is of vital importance to achieve better performance and durability.

A nature-inspired solution for water management in flow fields for electrochemical devices

“…60 The performance of the LUCY flow-field based PEMFC surpasses even PEMFCs with installed WTPs in their cathode side at 100% RH. 52,53,61 WTPs are porous bipolar plates with a dual function: the humidification of the reactant at low RH conditions and the drainage of the water from the cell when the GDLs and gas channels are filled with water. 53 The incorporation of WTPs (50 cm 2 surface area) in the cathode of PEMFCs results in an increase of maximum current and power density (B1.5 A cm À2 and B678 mW cm À2 , respectively) at 100% RH (H 2 /Air as fuel/oxidant) compared to serpentine flow-field based PEMFCs (B1.3 A cm À2 and B600 mW cm À2 , respectively).…”

“…53 The incorporation of WTPs (50 cm 2 surface area) in the cathode of PEMFCs results in an increase of maximum current and power density (B1.5 A cm À2 and B678 mW cm À2 , respectively) at 100% RH (H 2 /Air as fuel/oxidant) compared to serpentine flow-field based PEMFCs (B1.3 A cm À2 and B600 mW cm À2 , respectively). 53,61 Even though these improved performance results at 100% RH are obtained with a 50 cm 2 WTP and 0.4 mg Pt cm À2 catalyst loading in the anode and cathode, they are still inferior to the maximum current and power density achieved by our 5 times smaller (10 cm 2 ) LUCY flow-field based PEMFC with the same catalyst loading and fuel/oxidant ratio, showcasing the superiority of the nature-inspired design in the facile removal of water from the cell at 100% RH.…”

Recent advances in hybrid sodium–air batteries

“…In addition to the existing challenges from the components of metal-air batteries, several problems such as CO2 poisoning [93] and water evaporation [94,95] that influence the catalytic activity of air electrodes and the performance of batteries have drawn considerable attention from academe and industries and need to be solved.…”

Effect of electrode Pt-loading and cathode flow-field plate type on the degradation of PEMFC

“…This is owing to the ability of WTP improving water management [24,25] . Because of the water drainage function of WTP, excessive water is transported from cathode flow-field channels to circulating water chamber; if there is insufficient of water in MEAs, WTP transports water from circulatory water chambers to MEAs [31] . Fig.…”