Through-Plane Permeability for Untreated and PTFE-Treated Gas Diffusion Layers in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Ismail, M.S.; Damjanović, Tanja; Hughes, Kevin J.; Ingham, D.B.; Ma, Lin; Pourkashanian, Mohamed; Rosli, Masli Irwan

doi:10.1115/1.4000685

Cited by 45 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Temperature T is measured by the thermocouple connected to the fuel cell test station and the viscosity of air is calculated by the Sutherland's empirical formula [15]. When the air velocity is low, the permeability can be obtained by fitting Eq.…”

Section: Data Analysis Of Effective Permeability and Inertial Coefficmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides, when the in-plane permeability was measured, the exclusion of the non-Darcy terms resulted in a significant error, especially at high flowrates. Ismail et al [15] also investigated the through-plane permeability for untreated and PTFE-treated GDLs. They found that there was an optimum value of PTFE loading, at which the through-plane permeability was a maximum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…(3) gives[13,15]: Schematic (not to scale) of the external flow path at the cathode side and MEAs at anode and cathode sides.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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In-situ measurements of GDL effective permeability and under-land cross-flow in a PEM fuel cell

Taira

Liu

2012

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

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Section: Data Analysis Of Effective Permeability and Inertial Coefficmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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In-situ measurements of GDL effective permeability and under-land cross-flow in a PEM fuel cell

Taira

Liu

2012

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

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“…Several studies 3,7,10,25 reported about increasing ohmic losses with higher coating levels due to the additional unconductive coating. In contrast to this, Chang et al 16 reported about constant ohmic losses between coating loads of 5 and 20 wt% PTFE.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Water permeation measurements also have shown that a higher coating load results in an increased capillary pressure threshold. 9 Ismail et al 10 assumed that a reduction in the average pore size may not only decrease the permeability but may also increase the permeability under certain conditions. LaManna and Kandlikar 8 found out that a higher coating load causes a higher tortuosity, resulting in increased three-dimensional diffusion pathways for water vapor.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Hydrophobic Coating on Mass Transport Losses in PEFCs

Biesdorf

Forner‐Cuenca

Schmidt

et al. 2015

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Experimental results about the impact of hydrophobic coating inside commercial gas diffusion layers (GDL) of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFC) were obtained with four different combinations of PTFE-loadings on both anode and cathode. The measurements were performed on differential PEFCs which were characterized with high resolution neutron radiography (NR) combined with two electrochemical methods: a pulsed gas analysis (PGA) and limiting current density measurements. Using the combination of the neutron radiographs with these two electrochemical measurements, a new insight on the impact of water on mass transport losses was obtained. Under high humidification conditions, GDLs without hydrophobic coating do not accumulate more water than coated GDLs, but the water distributes differently and accumulates in the region under the channel of the flow field. Cells with high PTFE coating show higher mass transport losses despite the relatively small quantity of water, which can be explained by a different morphology of water accumulation. Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are electrochemical energy converters to provide electric power for stationary, automotive and portable applications. In particular, highest power densities are required for mobile and automotive applications implying cell operation at high current densities (≥1 Acm −2 ). At these operational conditions, mass transport losses (MTL) become dominant and lead to a significant drop in performance. MTL essentially originate from an excessive water accumulation inside the gas diffusion layer (GDL), as the removal of water and the supply of reactant gases share the same pathways.Inside a GDL, liquid water propagates under the effect of capillary forces from the catalyst layer (CL) to the flow channel.

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Effect of PTFE loading of gas diffusion layers on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells running at high-efficiency operating conditions

Ismail

Hughes

Ingham

et al. 2012

Int. J. Energy Res.

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SUMMARYIn this paper, the effects of microporous layer (MPL) addition and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) loading of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) on the overall performance of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell have been investigated. The focus was on fuel cells that operate at relatively low current densities where the power demand is low, but the efficiency is of concern. The results show that, in the activation loss-controlled region, the performance of the fuel cell operating with moderately PTFE-treated carbon substrates is superior over that operating with coated GDLs. This is due to the addition of the MPL which lengthens the diffusion paths and significantly reduces the mass transport properties. Conversely, in the ohmic loss-controlled region, the fuel cell with coated GDLs performs better than those with carbon substrates. This is explained by the enhanced contact of the GDL with the adjacent components after the MPL addition, which outweighs the negative effects associated with the activation loss-controlled region. Also, it was found that the fuel cell performance becomes lower if the GDL is treated with a relatively high PTFE loading in either the carbon substrate (due to the decrease in the porosity of the GDL) or the MPL.

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Through-Plane Permeability for Untreated and PTFE-Treated Gas Diffusion Layers in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Cited by 45 publications

References 12 publications

In-situ measurements of GDL effective permeability and under-land cross-flow in a PEM fuel cell

In-situ measurements of GDL effective permeability and under-land cross-flow in a PEM fuel cell

Impact of Hydrophobic Coating on Mass Transport Losses in PEFCs

Effect of PTFE loading of gas diffusion layers on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells running at high-efficiency operating conditions

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