Enhanced Water Management of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with Additive-Containing Microporous Layers

Spernjak, Dusan; Mukundan, Rangachary; Borup, Rodney L.; Connolly, Liam G.; Zackin, Benjamin I.; De Andrade, Vincent; Wojcik, Michael; Parkinson, Dilworth Y.; Jacobson, David L.; Hussey, Daniel S.; More, Karren L.; Chan, Thomas; Weber, Adam Z.; Zenyuk, Iryna V.

doi:10.1021/acsaem.8b01059

Title: Enhanced Water Management of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with Additive-Containing Microporous Layers

Journal Article · Fri Sep 28 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · ACS Applied Energy Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.8b01059· OSTI ID:1480048

^[1];

^[1]; Connolly, Liam G. ^[2]; Zackin, Benjamin I. ^[2]; De Andrade, Vincent ^[3]; Wojcik, Michael ^[3];

^[4]; Jacobson, David L. ^[5]; Hussey, Daniel S. ^[5]; More, Karren L. ^[6]; Chan, Thomas ^[4];

^[4];

^[7]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Tufts Univ., Medford, MA (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Tufts Univ., Medford, MA (United States); Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)

This work describes the performance improvement of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell with a novel class of microporous layers (MPLs) that incorporates hydrophilic additives: one with 30 μm aluminosilicate fibers and another with multiwalled carbon nanotubes with a domain size of 5 μm. Higher current densities at low potentials were observed for cells with the additive-containing MPLs compared to a baseline cell with a conventional MPL, which correlate with improvements in water management. This is also observed for helium and oxygen experiments and by the lower amount of liquid water in the cell, as determined by neutron radiography. Furthermore, carbon-nanotube-containing MPLs demonstrates improved durability compared to the baseline MPL. Microstructural analyses including nanotomography demonstrate that the filler material in both the additive-containing MPLs provide preferential transport pathways for liquid water, which correlate with ex situ measurements. The main advantage provided by these MPLs is improved liquid-water removal from the cathode catalyst layer, resulting in enhanced oxygen delivery to the electrocatalyst sites.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Fuel Cell Technologies Program

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396; AC02-06CH11357; AC05-00OR22725; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1480048

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1493735; OSTI ID: 1564215; OSTI ID: 1571911; OSTI ID: 1968459

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-18-26360

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Energy Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 11; ISSN 2574-0962

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 26 works

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Interaction of Pore Size and Hydrophobicity/Hydrophilicity for Improved Oxygen and Water Transport through Microporous Layers Simon, Christoph; Endres, Joseph; Nefzger-Loders, Benjamin Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 166, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.1111913jes	journal	January 2019

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Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
Energy Sciences
Fuel Cell
GDL
Gas Diffusion Layer
MPL
Micro-porous Layer
Fuel cells
microporous layer
water management
transport phenomena
material design
Fuel cells
Material design
Microporous layer
Transport phenomena
Water management