Abstract
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are leading candidates to decarbonize the transport sector, but widespread deployment will require improvements in lifetime, fuel economy and cost. Here we present the grooved electrode, an alternative electrode structure that enhances PEMFC performance and durability by coupling high ionomer (ion-conducting binder) content for improved H+ transport with grooves for rapid O2 transport. Grooved electrodes provide up to 50% higher performance than state-of-the-art conventional electrodes under standard operating conditions. Fuel cell diagnostics combined with multiphysics modelling demonstrate that grooved electrodes provide facile O2 transport despite their high ionomer content, enabling improved reaction rate uniformity. Grooved electrodes also provide improved durability, with less performance loss after carbon corrosion compared with baseline electrodes. Machine learning analysis demonstrates the potential to further optimize grooved structures for next-generation PEMFCs with enhanced performance and durability, enabling smaller and cheaper fuel cell stacks with higher fuel efficiency.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 685-694 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Nature Energy |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2023 |
Funding
C.L., H.Y., D.A.C., T.A.A., S.K.B., R.M., R.L.B. and J.S.S. gratefully acknowledge support from the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy through the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck (M2FCT) consortium, technology managers G. Kleen and D. Papageorgopoulos. C.L., W.J.M.K.-K., B.M.P., T.A.A., S.K.B., R.L.B. and J.S.S. gratefully acknowledge support from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development programme at Los Alamos National Laboratory (projects 2020200DR and 20210915PRD2). This work was performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US Department of Energy Office of Science by Los Alamos National Laboratory (contract 89233218CNA000001) and Sandia National Laboratories (contract DE-NA-0003525). C.L. acknowledges support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. We also thank Y. Muniz and A. Rahman for valuable discussions on multiphysics simulations and the ML methods, respectively, used in this work. Electron microscopy was conducted as part of a user project at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a US Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. C.L., H.Y., D.A.C., T.A.A., S.K.B., R.M., R.L.B. and J.S.S. gratefully acknowledge support from the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy through the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck (M2FCT) consortium, technology managers G. Kleen and D. Papageorgopoulos. C.L., W.J.M.K.-K., B.M.P., T.A.A., S.K.B., R.L.B. and J.S.S. gratefully acknowledge support from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development programme at Los Alamos National Laboratory (projects 2020200DR and 20210915PRD2). This work was performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US Department of Energy Office of Science by Los Alamos National Laboratory (contract 89233218CNA000001) and Sandia National Laboratories (contract DE-NA-0003525). C.L. acknowledges support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. We also thank Y. Muniz and A. Rahman for valuable discussions on multiphysics simulations and the ML methods, respectively, used in this work. Electron microscopy was conducted as part of a user project at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a US Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
