In-situ investigation of water distribution in polymer electrolyte fuel cell using neutron radiography [electronic resource]

• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 621.312 Generation, modification, storage
• Thông tin xuất bản: Los Alamos, N.M. : Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Los Alamos National Laboratory ; Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2010
• Mô tả vật lý: Medium: ED : , digital, PDF file.
• Bộ sưu tập: Metadata
• ID: 257034
• Chủ đề: 1. 30; 2. Current density; 3. Diffusion; 4. Electrolytes; 5. Et al; 6. Fuel cells; 7. Membranes; 8. Neutron radiography; 9. Performance; 10. Polymers; 11. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Tóm tắt

This paper investigates the water content within operating polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells using neutron radiography. We consider fuel cells with various PTFE loadings in their gas diffusion layers (GDL) and microporous layers (MPL), and examine the impacts of MPL/GDL properties on the liquid water behavior and fuel cell performance. Fuel cells are tested at both dry and fully hydrated conditions with different serpentine flow fields. Water contents in the projected areas of channel and land regions are probed. We find that the fuel cell may be subject to more flooding at low current-density operation. In addition, both MPL and GDL wetting properties have substantial impacts on the water content in fuel cell. The cell performance also varies on different scenarios of the MPL/GDL wetting properties. The quad-channel flow field exhibits higher water content without remarkable change in performance at low current densities. Liquid water profile along the channel is presented and liquid water on-set clearly indicated.