Investigation of synergetic effect of PDMS polymer hydrophobicity and polystyrene-silica particles roughness in the content of microporous layer on water management in PEM fuel cell

Creative Commons License

Öztürk A., Bayrakçeken Yurtcan A.

APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE, cilt.511, 2020 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 511
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.145415
  • Dergi Adı: APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, PASCAL, Aerospace Database, Chimica, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, INSPEC, Metadex, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Water management, Microporous layer, Polydimethylsiloxane, Polystyrene-silica particles, PEM fuel cell, GAS-DIFFUSION LAYER, SURFACE-ROUGHNESS, PERFORMANCE, THICKNESS, GRAPHENE, COATINGS, POLYDIMETHYLSILOXANE, TRANSPARENT, TEMPERATURE, FABRICATION
  • Atatürk Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Water management is still challenging issue in PEM fuel cells and many researchers have tried to elucidate the behavior of liquid water in cell media. Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) or Microporous Layer (MPL) are usually chosen to modify their surfaces with hydrophobic materials for better water removal ability. Distinctly, this study deals with using both hydrophobicity of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and roughness of polystyrene (PS) - silica particles together in the content of MPL. The best fuel cell performance was obtained with the MPL included binary of PDMS-1 (3% wt.) and PS-silica (1% wt.) particles. The highest current density value of this MPL was recorded as 287.5 mA/cm(2) (@0.6 V) which is corresponded to the 172 mW/cm(2) power density with 0.1 mg Pt/cm(2) catalyst loading. Contact angle and avearge surface roughness were respectively measured as 122 degrees +/- 4.7 and 2.63 mu m for the mentioned MPL. It was assumed that optimum hydrophobicity and surface roughness distinguished this MPL from the other prepared MPLs in terms of PEM fuel cell performance.