Influence of electrodic properties on water management in a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A technical review on gas diffusion, mechanism and medium of PEM fuel cell

“…From the various studies in open literature [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57], it is observed that though carbon cloth and carbon paper have their own pros and cons, carbon paper has been recommended by most of the authors especially for low humidity operation and carbon cloth for high humidity operation. The worst performance of the carbon cloth is likely to be attributed to contact resistances; however, at high current density, carbon papers have some issues pertaining to water management.…”

“…Staiti et al was a pioneer to reveal the relationship between the water transport and the amount of hydrophobic agent in the gas diffusion electrodes [56]. Teflonization is one of the most commonly used methods, by which the gas diffusion media is immersed into an aqueous PTFE suspension where the excess suspension is allowed to drip off, and the remaining solvent is removed by oven drying.…”

Experimental investigation of the role of a microporous layer on the water transport and performance of a PEM fuel cell

“…There is no universally applicable strategy for water management in PEMFCs because water transport in various components of a PEMFC is affected by the operating conditions such as feed stream humidification level, operating temperature, and reactant stoichiometric ratio as well as by the physical characteristics of the fuel cell components, especially that of the PTL [5]. To improve water transport, the PTL is treated with a hydrophobic material such as Teflon to change its wetting characteristics.…”

Water transport coefficient distribution through the membrane in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell

“…To date, the multiple mechanisms of water transport across the membrane still remain unclear, and the modeling results need experimental validation. Experimentally, overall water balance has been commonly performed in fuel cells by collecting water from the fuel cell effluents through ice traps or other methods [8][9][10]. However, the net water transport coefficient averaged over the entire active area of a PEFC is insufficient for the basic understanding of localized flooding and degradation occurring in a PEFC.…”