Enhanced Water Management of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with Additive-Containing Microporous Layers

Dusan Spernjak; Rangachary Mukundan; Rodney L. Borup; Liam G. Connolly; Benjamin I. Zackin; Vincent De Andrade; Michael Wojcik; Dilworth Y. Parkinson; David L. Jacobson; Daniel S. Hussey; Karren L. More; Thomas Chan; Adam Z. Weber; Iryna V. Zenyuk

doi:10.1021/acsaem.8b01059

Enhanced Water Management of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with Additive-Containing Microporous Layers

Dusan Spernjak, Rangachary Mukundan, Rodney L. Borup, Liam G. Connolly, Benjamin I. Zackin, Vincent De Andrade, Michael Wojcik, Dilworth Y. Parkinson, David L. Jacobson, Daniel S. Hussey, Karren L. More, Thomas Chan, Adam Z. Weber, Iryna V. Zenyuk

Center for Nanophase Matls Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

This work describes the performance improvement of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell with a novel class of microporous layers (MPLs) that incorporates hydrophilic additives: one with 30 μm aluminosilicate fibers and another with multiwalled carbon nanotubes with a domain size of 5 μm. Higher current densities at low potentials were observed for cells with the additive-containing MPLs compared to a baseline cell with a conventional MPL, which correlate with improvements in water management. This is also observed for helium and oxygen experiments and by the lower amount of liquid water in the cell, as determined by neutron radiography. Furthermore, carbon-nanotube-containing MPLs demonstrates improved durability compared to the baseline MPL. Microstructural analyses including nanotomography demonstrate that the filler material in both the additive-containing MPLs provide preferential transport pathways for liquid water, which correlate with ex situ measurements. The main advantage provided by these MPLs is improved liquid-water removal from the cathode catalyst layer, resulting in enhanced oxygen delivery to the electrocatalyst sites.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	6006-6017
Number of pages	12
Journal	ACS Applied Energy Materials
Volume	1
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.8b01059
State	Published - Nov 26 2018

Funding

We thank Peter Wilde and Ruediger-Bernd Schweiss from SGL for providing the MPLs and GDLs used in this study. I.V.Z. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation under CBET award no. 1605159. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Microscopy conducted as part of a user proposal at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility. Research was supported by the Fuel Cell Technologies, Office Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. DOE, and was conducted through the FC-PAD Consortium. The authors acknowledge the support of the technology development managers Nancy Garland, Greg Kleen, and Dimitrios Papageorgopoulos. This work was also supported by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the NIST Ionizing Radiation Division, the Director’s Office of NIST, the NIST Center for Neutron Research, and the Department of Energy through interagency agreement no. DE-AI01-01EE50660.

Keywords

fuel cells
material design
microporous layer
transport phenomena
water management

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10.1021/acsaem.8b01059

Cite this

Spernjak, D., Mukundan, R., Borup, R. L., Connolly, L. G., Zackin, B. I., De Andrade, V., Wojcik, M., Parkinson, D. Y., Jacobson, D. L., Hussey, D. S., More, K. L., Chan, T., Weber, A. Z., & Zenyuk, I. V. (2018). Enhanced Water Management of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with Additive-Containing Microporous Layers. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 1(11), 6006-6017. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.8b01059

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title = "Enhanced Water Management of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with Additive-Containing Microporous Layers",

abstract = "This work describes the performance improvement of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell with a novel class of microporous layers (MPLs) that incorporates hydrophilic additives: one with 30 μm aluminosilicate fibers and another with multiwalled carbon nanotubes with a domain size of 5 μm. Higher current densities at low potentials were observed for cells with the additive-containing MPLs compared to a baseline cell with a conventional MPL, which correlate with improvements in water management. This is also observed for helium and oxygen experiments and by the lower amount of liquid water in the cell, as determined by neutron radiography. Furthermore, carbon-nanotube-containing MPLs demonstrates improved durability compared to the baseline MPL. Microstructural analyses including nanotomography demonstrate that the filler material in both the additive-containing MPLs provide preferential transport pathways for liquid water, which correlate with ex situ measurements. The main advantage provided by these MPLs is improved liquid-water removal from the cathode catalyst layer, resulting in enhanced oxygen delivery to the electrocatalyst sites.",

keywords = "fuel cells, material design, microporous layer, transport phenomena, water management",

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Spernjak, D, Mukundan, R, Borup, RL, Connolly, LG, Zackin, BI, De Andrade, V, Wojcik, M, Parkinson, DY, Jacobson, DL, Hussey, DS, More, KL, Chan, T, Weber, AZ & Zenyuk, IV 2018, 'Enhanced Water Management of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with Additive-Containing Microporous Layers', ACS Applied Energy Materials, vol. 1, no. 11, pp. 6006-6017. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.8b01059

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AU - Spernjak, Dusan

AU - Mukundan, Rangachary

AU - Borup, Rodney L.

AU - Connolly, Liam G.

AU - Zackin, Benjamin I.

AU - De Andrade, Vincent

AU - Wojcik, Michael

AU - Parkinson, Dilworth Y.

AU - Jacobson, David L.

AU - Hussey, Daniel S.

AU - More, Karren L.

AU - Chan, Thomas

AU - Weber, Adam Z.

AU - Zenyuk, Iryna V.

PY - 2018/11/26

Y1 - 2018/11/26

N2 - This work describes the performance improvement of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell with a novel class of microporous layers (MPLs) that incorporates hydrophilic additives: one with 30 μm aluminosilicate fibers and another with multiwalled carbon nanotubes with a domain size of 5 μm. Higher current densities at low potentials were observed for cells with the additive-containing MPLs compared to a baseline cell with a conventional MPL, which correlate with improvements in water management. This is also observed for helium and oxygen experiments and by the lower amount of liquid water in the cell, as determined by neutron radiography. Furthermore, carbon-nanotube-containing MPLs demonstrates improved durability compared to the baseline MPL. Microstructural analyses including nanotomography demonstrate that the filler material in both the additive-containing MPLs provide preferential transport pathways for liquid water, which correlate with ex situ measurements. The main advantage provided by these MPLs is improved liquid-water removal from the cathode catalyst layer, resulting in enhanced oxygen delivery to the electrocatalyst sites.

AB - This work describes the performance improvement of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell with a novel class of microporous layers (MPLs) that incorporates hydrophilic additives: one with 30 μm aluminosilicate fibers and another with multiwalled carbon nanotubes with a domain size of 5 μm. Higher current densities at low potentials were observed for cells with the additive-containing MPLs compared to a baseline cell with a conventional MPL, which correlate with improvements in water management. This is also observed for helium and oxygen experiments and by the lower amount of liquid water in the cell, as determined by neutron radiography. Furthermore, carbon-nanotube-containing MPLs demonstrates improved durability compared to the baseline MPL. Microstructural analyses including nanotomography demonstrate that the filler material in both the additive-containing MPLs provide preferential transport pathways for liquid water, which correlate with ex situ measurements. The main advantage provided by these MPLs is improved liquid-water removal from the cathode catalyst layer, resulting in enhanced oxygen delivery to the electrocatalyst sites.

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Enhanced Water Management of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with Additive-Containing Microporous Layers

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