免增湿型空气自呼吸燃料电池的研究进展

Progress in the R&D of self-humidifying and air-breathing proton exchange membrane fuel cell

空气自呼吸质子交换膜燃料电池是一种主动吸取空气的燃料电池装置,由于本身的高能量转换效率和反应产物环保的优点被广泛应用在各种移动供电系统中。但是空气自呼吸质子交换膜燃料电池正常工作需要面对一系列问题,包括防止反应气体泄漏、电化学反应生成水的管理、热量的扩散和能够长时间稳定工作以及由于反应气体的不充分湿润和质子交换膜内水分子的电渗,扩散和蒸发作用造成的质子交换膜脱水等,这些问题都会严重影响燃料电池的性能表现。因此本文围绕以上的问题介绍国内外的研究情况,包括空气自呼吸质子交换膜燃料电池各组成部件的研究和开发,例如单电池中阴极集流板的开孔样式对氧气运输和水分管理的影响,气体扩散层和双极板的材料选用;通过添加亲水物质或改良催化剂载体等方法制作免增湿膜电极来实现空气自呼吸燃料电池免增湿目的以及改良阴极部件构造使水分在亲水织物材料的毛细管作用下能够合理分布在膜电极周围。通过介绍国内外关于空气自呼吸燃料电池的应用实例,展望了空气自呼吸燃料电池的应用前景和发展趋势。最后对如何提高空气自呼吸燃料电池性能的方法也作出了简单的总结。

Air-breathing proton exchange membrane fuel cell（AB-PEMFC） is able to actively absorbing air,and widely applied in various mobile power system due to its high energy transition efficiency and the product＇s environmental friendship. However,before the commercialization of AB-PEMFC,it must solve the problems such as fuel leakage,water produced by reactions,heat dissipation,stability of long-time running and the dry-out of the membrane or catalyst layer caused by reactant gas without sufficient external humidification and the electro-osmotic drag,diffusion and evaporation of inner water molecules. Thus this paper introduces research progress on key components of AB-PEMFC,for example,design of novel hole patterns for transporting water and oxygen on cathode current collector of single cell and selection of materials for gas diffusion layer and bipolar plate. It also presents methods of adding hydrophilic materials into catalyst layer or modifying the substrate of catalyst to fabricate self-humidifying membrane electrode assembly（MEA）. By introducing a few application examples,we present the progress trends and applications of AB-PEMFC. Furthermore,some methods to improve the performance of AB-PEMFC have also been summarized.