Abstract
Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (PEMECs) with its high efficiency even at low-temperature operating conditions, have received more attention for hydrogen/oxygen generation and energy storage. Liquid/gas diffusion layers (LGDLs), which are located between the catalyst layers (CLs) and bipolar plates (BPs), play an important role in enhancing the performance of water splitting in PEMECs. They are expected to transport electrons, heat, and reactants/products simultaneously with minimum voltage, current, thermal, interfacial, and fluidic losses. In this study, a set of novel planar titanium based thin LGDLs with straight-through pores and well-tunable pore morphologies, named as TT-LGDLs, is developed by taking advantage of advanced micro/nano manufacturing methods. The TT-LGDLs with different pore shapes have been in-situ tested in a regular PEMEC and the novel TT-LGDLs have achieved a superior performance, which is only 1.639 V at 2.0 A/cm2 and 80 oC with a commercial catalyst coated membrane (CCM). This novel TT-LGDLs can be a new guide for future research and development towards high-efficiency and low-cost hydrogen energy.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | 15th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 2017 |
| Publisher | American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781624105128 |
| State | Published - 2017 |
| Event | 15th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 2017 - Atlanta, Georgia Duration: Jul 10 2017 → Jul 12 2017 |
Publication series
| Name | 15th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 2017 |
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Conference
| Conference | 15th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 2017 |
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| Country/Territory | Georgia |
| City | Atlanta |
| Period | 07/10/17 → 07/12/17 |
Funding
The authors greatly appreciate the support from U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory under Award DE-FE0011585, National Renewable Energy Lab under Award DE-AC36-08GO28308. This research was partially conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. The authors also wish to express their appreciation to Dr. Bo Han, William Barnhill, Stuart Steen, Dale Hensley, Dayrl Briggs, Alexander Terekhov, Douglas Warnberg, and Kate Lansford for their help.