Visualization, understanding, and mitigation of process-induced-membrane irregularities in gas diffusion electrode-based polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells
Abstract
Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) show substantial promise for their application in electric vehicles. For large-scale manufacturing of PEMFCs, roll-to-roll coated gas-diffusion-electrodes (GDE) offer certain advantages over other production pathways. Procedures including hot pressing and coating an ionomer overlayer may be necessary for this manufacturing pathway to enable a suitable catalyst layer/membrane interface. The same procedures may potentially introduce membrane irregularities, especially when thin membranes are used. Limited understanding exists regarding if and to what extent such irregularities impact PEMFC performance and lifetime, and therefore be considered defects. In this study, NREL's customized fuel cell hardware that enables quasi in-situ infrared (IR) thermography studies was utilized to visualize spatial hydrogen crossover and identify membrane irregularities that originated from the GDE-based MEA fabrication process. The structure of these membrane irregularities was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and its impact on initial H2/air performance was determined. Accelerated stress testing (AST) revealed that these irregularities develop into failure point locations. These results were validated across many MEAs with identified process-induced membrane irregularities. By selecting specific gas diffusion media properties and by fine tuning the MEA hot pressing parameters, the formation of such membrane irregularities was mitigated.
- Authors:
-
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (EE-3F); USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1769844
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1775192
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5900-79294
Journal ID: ISSN 0360-3199; MainId:33520;UUID:08e9549d-33f0-420f-a359-1d35e04fa7a3;MainAdminID:19803
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 46; Journal Issue: 27; Journal ID: ISSN 0360-3199
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 08 HYDROGEN; PEMFC; MEA; membrane irregularity; hot pressing; IR; AST
Citation Formats
Wang, Min, Medina, Samantha, Ochoa-Lozano, Josias, Mauger, Scott, Pylypenko, Svitlana, Ulsh, Michael, and Bender, Guido. Visualization, understanding, and mitigation of process-induced-membrane irregularities in gas diffusion electrode-based polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.01.186.
Wang, Min, Medina, Samantha, Ochoa-Lozano, Josias, Mauger, Scott, Pylypenko, Svitlana, Ulsh, Michael, & Bender, Guido. Visualization, understanding, and mitigation of process-induced-membrane irregularities in gas diffusion electrode-based polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.01.186
Wang, Min, Medina, Samantha, Ochoa-Lozano, Josias, Mauger, Scott, Pylypenko, Svitlana, Ulsh, Michael, and Bender, Guido. Fri .
"Visualization, understanding, and mitigation of process-induced-membrane irregularities in gas diffusion electrode-based polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.01.186. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1769844.
@article{osti_1769844,
title = {Visualization, understanding, and mitigation of process-induced-membrane irregularities in gas diffusion electrode-based polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells},
author = {Wang, Min and Medina, Samantha and Ochoa-Lozano, Josias and Mauger, Scott and Pylypenko, Svitlana and Ulsh, Michael and Bender, Guido},
abstractNote = {Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) show substantial promise for their application in electric vehicles. For large-scale manufacturing of PEMFCs, roll-to-roll coated gas-diffusion-electrodes (GDE) offer certain advantages over other production pathways. Procedures including hot pressing and coating an ionomer overlayer may be necessary for this manufacturing pathway to enable a suitable catalyst layer/membrane interface. The same procedures may potentially introduce membrane irregularities, especially when thin membranes are used. Limited understanding exists regarding if and to what extent such irregularities impact PEMFC performance and lifetime, and therefore be considered defects. In this study, NREL's customized fuel cell hardware that enables quasi in-situ infrared (IR) thermography studies was utilized to visualize spatial hydrogen crossover and identify membrane irregularities that originated from the GDE-based MEA fabrication process. The structure of these membrane irregularities was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and its impact on initial H2/air performance was determined. Accelerated stress testing (AST) revealed that these irregularities develop into failure point locations. These results were validated across many MEAs with identified process-induced membrane irregularities. By selecting specific gas diffusion media properties and by fine tuning the MEA hot pressing parameters, the formation of such membrane irregularities was mitigated.},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.01.186},
journal = {International Journal of Hydrogen Energy},
number = 27,
volume = 46,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Feb 19 00:00:00 EST 2021},
month = {Fri Feb 19 00:00:00 EST 2021}
}
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