Dresden 2014 – scientific programme
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HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik
HL 10: Functional materials I - Energy storage (organized by MM)
HL 10.4: Talk
Monday, March 31, 2014, 11:00–11:15, IFW A
Hydrophobicity patterning of gas diffusion media for polymer electrolyte fuel cells — •Indro Biswas1, Pawel Gazdzicki1, Martin Tomaš2, and Mathias Schulze1 — 1German Aerospace Center (DLR), Insitute of Technical Thermodynamics, Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany — 2University of West Bohemia, New Technologies Research Centre, Univerzitní 8, 306 14 Plzeň, Czech Republic
Polymer electrolyte fuel cells with their high gravimetric energy density face a water balance problem especially under variable loads, e.g. in automotive conditions: The excess product water needs to be removed from the fuel cell while maintaining a humidified membrane.
The gas diffusion layer, which also provides contact to the electrochemically active components, has to achieve the passive management of the water balance. Heterogeneously hydrophobic gas diffusion media have already shown to be more capable of balancing these opposing requirements than conventional materials. Various methods of patterning gradients of hydrophobicity are applied, like microperforation and laser, focused X-Ray and ion beam irradiation. The modifications are analysed with photoemission and infrared spectroscopy and compared for their performance, applicability and scalability.
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative under Grant No. 303446 (Impala).