Journal
JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES
Volume 525, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2022.231121
Keywords
GDL; Liquid water transport performance; Hydrophobicity; Hydrothermal treatment; Numerical simulations
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51906189]
- Basic Science Center Program for Ordered Energy Conversion of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [51888103]
- Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province [2021ZDLGY13-01]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In this study, the hydrothermal decoration approach is used to enhance the hydrophobicity of a commercial GDL. The enhanced water discharge capacity of the GDL induced by hydrothermal decoration can enhance the water management performance of PEMFCs.
The water discharge capacity of gas diffusion layer (GDL) is a key factor for improving the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) at high current density. In this study, the hydrothermal decoration approach is employed to enhance the hydrophobicity of a commercial GDL and is compared with the immersion method. The hydrophobic SiO2 particles are homogeneously deposited on the carbon fiber of the GDL via hydrothermal decoration (HD-GDL). In contrast, the hydrophobic SiO2 only partially coats the carbon fiber in the top and bottom regions of the GDL during the immersion (IM-GDL). The surface roughness and diameter of fibers increase when the surface morphology of fibers changes from grooves (CR-GDL) to coating (IM-GDL) and particles (HD-GDL). The breakthrough pressure is higher and the liquid water saturation ratio is lower for HD-GDL than that for CR-GDL and IM-GDL. Multi-scale numerical simulations show that the enhanced water transport velocity is due to the enlarged fiber diameter, whereas the decreased liquid water saturation ratio is due to the coupled effects of enhanced fiber hydrophobicity and enlarged fiber diameter. The improved water discharge capacity of the GDL induced by hydrothermal decoration can be employed to enhance the water management performance of PEMFCs.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available