Digital volume imaging of the PEFC gas diffusion layer

Conference · 01 January 2010

OSTI ID:1023428

Borup, Rodney L ^[1]; Mukundan, Rangachary ^[1]; Mukherjee, Partha ^[2]; Shim, Eunkyoung ^[3]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory
2. ORNL
3. NC ST

The gas diffusion layer (GDL) plays a key role in the overall performance/durability of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). Of profound importance, especially in the context of water management and flooding phenomena, is the influence of the underlying pore morphology and wetting characteristics Of the GDL microstructure. In this article, we present the digital volumetric imaging (DVI) technique in order to generate the 3-D carbon paper GDL microstructure. The internal pore structure and the local microstructural variations in terms of fiber alignment and fiber/binder distributions are investigated using the several 3-D thin sections of the sample obtained from DVI.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1023428
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-10-04630; LA-UR-10-4630; TRN: US201118%%1018
• Resource Relation: Conference: 218th Electrochemical Society Meeting ; October 11, 2010 ; Las Vegas, NV
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
ALIGNMENT
CARBON
DIFFUSION
FIBERS
MANAGEMENT
MICROSTRUCTURE
MORPHOLOGY
PORE STRUCTURE
PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELLS
WATER