Journal
ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA
Volume 65, Issue -, Pages 13-21Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2011.12.110
Keywords
Diffusion; Porous media; Fuel cell; Carbon paper; Gas diffusion layer; Microporous layer; Diffusion coefficient; Knudsen effect; Loschmidt cell
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Funding
- AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada
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Accuracy in the effective diffusion coefficient of the gas diffusion layer (GDL)/microporous layer (MPL) is important to accurately predict the mass transport limitations for high current density operation of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. All the previous studies regarding mass transport limitations were limited to pure GDLs, and experimental analysis of the impact of the MPL on the overall diffusion in the porous GDL is still lacking. A modified Loschmidt cell with an oxygen-nitrogen mixture is used in this work to determine the effect of MPL on the effective diffusion coefficients. It is found that Knudsen effects play a dominant role in the diffusion through the MPL where pore diameters are less than 1 mu m. Experimental results show that the effective diffusion coefficient of the MPL is only about 21% that of its GDL substrate and Knudsen diffusion accounts for 80% of the effective diffusion coefficient of the GDL with MPL measured in this study. No existing correlations can correlate the effective diffusion coefficient with significant Knudsen contribution. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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