Effects of baffle position in serpentine flow channel on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells

This study used a three-dimensional numerical model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with five types of channels:a smooth channel(Case 1);eight rectangular baffles were arranged in the upstream(Case 2),midstream(Case 3),downstream(Case 4),and the entire cathode flow channel(Case 5)to study the effects of baffle position on mass transport,power density,net power,etc.Moreover,the effects of back pressure and humidity on the voltage were investigated.Results showed that compared to smooth channels,the oxygen and water transport facilitation at the diffusion layer-channel interface were added 11.53%-20.60%and 7.81%-9.80%at 1.68 A·cm^(-2)by adding baffles.The closer the baffles were to upstream,the higher the total oxygen flux,but the lower the flux uniformity the worse the water removal.The oxygen flux of upstream baffles was 8.14%higher than that of downstream baffles,but oxygen flux uniformity decreased by 18.96%at 1.68 A·cm^(-2).The order of water removal and voltage improvement was Case 4>Case 5>Case 3>Case 2>Case 1.Net power of Case 4 was 9.87%higher than that of the smooth channel.To the Case 4,when the cell worked under low back pressure or high humidity,the voltage increments were higher.The potential increment for the back pressure of 0 atm was 0.9%higher than that of 2 atm(1 atm=101.325 kPa).The potential increment for the humidity of 100%was 7.89%higher than that of 50%.

Probing the Efficiency of PPMG-Based Composite Electrolytes for Applications of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

PPMG-based composite electrolytes were fabricated via the solution method using the polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinylpyrrolidone blend reinforced with various contents of sulfonated inorganic filler.Sulfuric acid was employed as the sulfonating agent to functionalize the external surface of the inorganic filler,i.e.,graphene oxide.The proton conductivities of the newly prepared proton exchange membranes(PEMs)were increased by increasing the temperature and content of sulfonated graphene oxide(SGO),i.e.,ranging from 0.025 S/cm to 0.060 S/cm.The induction of the optimum level of SGO is determined to be an excellent route to enhance ionic conductivity.The single-cell performance test was conducted by sandwiching the newly prepared PEMs between an anode(0.2 mg/cm^(2) Pt/Ru)and a cathode(0.2 mg/cm^(2) Pt)to prepare membrane electrode assemblies,followed by hot pressing under a pressure of approximately 100 kg/cm^(2) at 60℃for 5–10 min.The highest power densities achieved with PPMG PEMs were 14.9 and 35.60 mW/cm^(2) at 25℃and 70℃,respectively,at ambient pressure with 100%relative humidity.Results showed that the newly prepared PEMs exhibit good electrochemical performance.The results indicated that the prepared composite membrane with 6 wt%filler can be used as an alternative membrane for applications of high-performance proton exchange membrane fuel cell.

Intermolecular Acid-Base-Pairs Containing Poly(p-Terphenyl-co-lsatin Piperidinium)for High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

How to optimize and regulate the distribution of phosphoric acid in matrix,and pursuing the improved electrochemical performance and service lifetime of high temperature proton exchange membrane(HT-PEMs)fuel cell are significant challenges.Herein,bifunctional poly(p-terphenyl-co-isatin piperidinium)copolymer with tethered phosphonic acid(t-PA)and intrinsic tertiary amine base groups are firstly prepared and investigated as HT-PEMs.The distinctive architecture of the copolymer provides a well-designed platform for rapid proton transport.Protons not only transports through the hydrogen bond network formed by the adsorbed free phosphoric acid(f-PA)anchored by the tertiary amine base groups,but also rely upon the proton channel constructed by the ionic cluster formed by the t-PA aggregation.Thorough the design of the structure,the bifunctional copolymers with lower PA uptake level(<100%)display prominent proton conductivities and peak power densities(99 mS cm^(-1),812 mW cm^(-2)at 160℃),along with lower PA leaching and higher voltage stability,which is a top leading result in disclosed literature.The results demonstrate that the design of intermolecular acid-base-pairs can improve the proton conductivity without sacrificing the intrinsic chemical stability or mechanical property of the thin membrane,realizing win-win demands between the mechanical robustness and electrochemical properties of HT-PEMs.

Performance Degradation Prediction of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Based on CEEMDAN-KPCA and DA-GRU Networks

In order to improve the performance degradation prediction accuracy of proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC),a fusion prediction method(CKDG)based on adaptive noise complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition(CEEMDAN),kernel principal component analysis(KPCA)and dual attention mechanism gated recurrent unit neural network(DA-GRU)was proposed.CEEMDAN and KPCA were used to extract the input feature data sequence,reduce the influence of random factors,and capture essential feature components to reduce the model complexity.The DA-GRU network helps to learn the feature mapping relationship of data in long time series and predict the changing trend of performance degradation data more accurately.The actual aging experimental data verify the performance of the CKDG method.The results show that under the steady-state condition of 20%training data prediction,the CKDA method can reduce the root mean square error(RMSE)by 52.7%and 34.6%,respectively,compared with the traditional LSTM and GRU neural networks.Compared with the simple DA-GRU network,RMSE is reduced by 15%,and the degree of over-fitting is reduced,which has higher accuracy.It also shows excellent prediction performance under the dynamic condition data set and has good universality.

Gel-state polybenzimidazole proton exchange membranes with flexible alkyl sulfonic acid side chains for a wider operating temperature range(25–240 ℃)

High-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells(HT-PEMFC) possess distinct technical advantages of high output power, simplified water/heat management, increased tolerance to fuel impurities and diverse fuel sources, within the temperature range of 120–200 ℃. However, for practical automobile applications, it was crucial to broaden their low-temperature operating window and enable cold start-up capability. Herein, gel-state phosphoric acid(PA) doped sulfonated polybenzimidazole(PBI) proton exchange membranes(PEMs) were designed and synthesized via PPA sol-gel process and in-situ sultone ring-opening reactions with various proton transport pathways based on absorbed PA, flexible alkyl chain connected sulfonic acid groups and imidazole sites. The effects of flexible alkyl sulfonic acid side chain length and content on PA doping level, proton conductivity, and membrane stability under different temperature and relative humidity(RH) were thoroughly investigated. The prepared gel-state membranes contained a self-assembled lamellar and porous structure that facilitated the absorption of a large amount of PA with rapid proton transporting mechanisms. At room temperature, the optimized membrane exhibited a proton conductivity of 0.069 S cm^(-1), which was further increased to 0.162 and 0.358 S cm^(-1)at 80 and 200 ℃, respectively, without additional humidification. The most significant contribution of this work was demonstrating the feasibility of gel-state sulfonated PBI membranes in expanding HT-PEMFC application opportunities over a wider operating range of 25 to 240 ℃.

Pore-Scale Investigation of Coupled Two-Phase and Reactive Transport in the Cathode Electrode of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

A three-dimensional multicomponent multiphase lattice Boltzmann model(LBM)is established to model the coupled two-phase and reactive transport phenomena in the cathode electrode of proton exchange membrane fuel cells.The gas diff usion layer(GDL)and microporous layer(MPL)are stochastically reconstructed with the inside dynamic distribution of oxygen and liquid water resolved,and the catalyst layer is simplifi ed as a superthin layer to address the electrochemical reaction,which provides a clear description of the fl ooding eff ect on mass transport and performance.Diff erent kinds of electrodes are reconstructed to determine the optimum porosity and structure design of the GDL and MPL by comparing the transport resistance and per-formance under the fl ooding condition.The simulation results show that gradient porosity GDL helps to increase the reactive area and average concentration under fl ooding.The presence of the MPL ensures the oxygen transport space and reaction area because liquid water cannot transport through micropores.Moreover,the MPL helps in the uniform distribution of oxygen for an effi cient in-plane transport capacity.Crack and perforation structures can accelerate the water transport in the assembly.The systematic perforation design yields the best performance under fl ooding by separating the transport of liquid water and oxygen.

CFD Analysis of Spiral Flow Fields in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs)are largely used in various applications because of their pollution-free products and high energy conversion efficiency.In order to improve the related design,in the present work a new spiral flow field with a bypass is proposed.The reaction gas enters the flow field in the central path and diffuses in two directions through the flow channel and the bypass.The bypasses are arranged incrementally.The number of bypasses and the cross-section size of the bypasses are varied parametrically while a single-cell model of the PEMFC is used.The influence of the concentration of liquid water and oxygen in the cell on the performance of different flow fields is determined by means of Computational fluid dynamics(COMSOL Multiphysics software).Results show that when the bypass number is 48 and its cross-sectional area is 0.5 mm^(2),the cell exhibits the best performances.

Ti/(Ti,Cr)N/CrN multilayer coated 316L stainless steel by arc ion plating as bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Arc ion plating (AIP) is applied to form Ti/(Ti,Cr)N/CrN multilayer coating on the surface of 316L stainless steel (SS316L) as bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The characterizations of the coating are analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Interfacial contact resistance (ICR) between the coated sample and carbon paper is 4.9 m Omega cm(2) under 150 N/cm(2), which is much lower than that of the SS316L substrate. Potentiodynamic and potentiostatic tests are performed in the simulated PEMFC working conditions to investigate the corrosion behaviors of the coated sample. Superior anticorrosion performance is observed for the coated sample, whose corrosion current density is 0.12 mu A/cm(2). Surface morphology results after corrosion tests indicate that the substrate is well protected by the multilayer coating. Performances of the single cell with the multilayer coated SS316L bipolar plate are improved significantly compared with that of the cell with the uncoated SS316L bipolar plate, presenting a great potential for PEMFC application. (C) 2016 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.

Process and challenges of stainless steel based bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC)powered automobiles have been recognized to be the ultimate solution to replace traditional fuel automobiles because of their advantages of PEMFCs such as no pollution,low temperature start-up,high energy density,and low noise.As one of the core components,the bipolar plates(BPs)play an important role in the PEMFC stack.Traditional graphite BPs and composite BPs have been criticized for their shortcomings such as low strength,high brittleness,and high processing cost.In contrast,stainless steel BPs(SSBPs)have recently attracted much attention of domestic and foreign researchers because of their excellent comprehensive performance,low cost,and diverse options for automobile applications.However,the SSBPs are prone to corrosion and passivation in the PEMFC working environment,which lead to reduced output power or premature failure.This review is aimed to summarize the corrosion and passivation mechanisms,characterizations and evaluation,and the surface modification technologies in the current SSBPs research.The non-coating and coating technical routes of SSBPs are demonstrated,such as substrate component regulation,thermal nitriding,electroplating,ion plating,chemical vapor deposition,and physical vapor deposition,etc.Alternative coating materials for SSBPs are metal coatings,metal nitride coatings,conductive polymer coatings,and polymer/carbon coatings,etc.Both the surface modification technologies can solve the corrosion resistance problem of stainless steel without affecting the contact resistance,however still facing restraints such as long-time stability,feasibility of low-cost,and mass production process.This paper is believed to enrich the knowledge of high-performance and long-life BPs applied for PEMFC automobiles.

Carbon-supported ultrafine Pt nanoparticles modified with trace amounts of cobalt as enhanced oxygen reduction reaction catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

To accelerate the kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)in proton exchange membrane fuel cells,ultrafine Pt nanoparticles modified with trace amounts of cobalt were fabricated and decorated on carbon black through a strategy involving modified glycol reduction and chemical etching.The obtained Pt36Co/C catalyst exhibits a much larger electrochemical surface area(ECSA)and an improved ORR electrocatalytic activity compared to commercial Pt/C.Moreover,an electrode prepared with Pt36Co/C was further evaluated under H2-air single cell test conditions,and exhibited a maximum specific power density of 10.27 W mgPt^-1,which is 1.61 times higher than that of a conventional Pt/C electrode and also competitive with most state-of-the-art Pt-based architectures.In addition,the changes in ECSA,power density,and reacting resistance during the accelerated degradation process further demonstrate the enhanced durability of the Pt36Co/C electrode.The superior performance observed in this work can be attributed to the synergy between the ultrasmall size and homogeneous distribution of catalyst nanoparticles,bimetallic ligand and electronic effects,and the dissolution of unstable Co with the rearrangement of surface structure brought about by acid etching.Furthermore,the accessible raw materials and simplified operating procedures involved in the fabrication process would result in great cost-effectiveness for practical applications of PEMFCs.

Sulfonated polybenzimidazole/amine functionalized titanium dioxide(s PBI/AFT) composite electrolyte membranes for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells usage

The novel sulfonated polybenzimidazole(sPBI)/amine functionalized titanium dioxide(AFT) composite membrane is devised and studied for its capability of the application of high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells(HT-PEMFCs),unlike the prior low temperature AFT endeavors.The high temperature compatibility was actualized because of the filling of free volumes in the rigid aromatic matrix of the composite with AFT nanoparticles which inhibited segmental motions of the chains and improved its thermal stability.Besides,amine functionalization of TiO2 enhanced their dispersion character in the sPBI matrix and shortened the interparticle separation gap which finally improved the proton transfer after establishing interconnected pathways and breeding more phosphoric acid(PA) doping.In addition,the appeared assembled clusters of AFT flourished a superior mechanical stability.Thus,the optimized sPBI/AFT(10 wt%) showed 65.3 MPa tensile strength;0.084 S·cm^-1 proton conductivity(at 160℃;in anhydrous conditions),28.6% water uptake and PA doping level of 23 mol per sPBI repeat unit.The maximum power density peak for sPBI/AFT-10 met the figure of0.42 W·cm^-2 at 160℃(in dry conditions) under atmospheric pressure with 1.5 and 2.5 stoichiometric flow rates of H2/air.These results affirmed the probable fitting of sPBI/AFT composite for HT-PEMFC applications.

Pt/WO_3/C nanocomposite with parallel WO_3 nanorods as cathode catalyst for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Pt/WO3/C nanocomposites with parallel WO3 nanorods were synthesized and applied as the cathode catalyst for proton exchange membrane fuel cells （PEMFCs）. Electrochemical results and single cell tests show that an enhanced activity for the oxygen reduction reaction （ORR） is obtained for the Pt/WO3/C catalyst compared with Pt/C. The higher catalytic activity might be ascribed to the improved Pt dispersion with smaller particle sizes. The Pt/WO3/C catalyst also exhibits a good electrochemical stability under potential cycling. Thus, the Pt/WO3/C catalyst can be used as a potential PEMFC cathode catalyst.

Graphite-polypyrrole coated 316L stainless steel as bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

316L stainless steel（SS 316L） is quite attractive as bipolar plates in proton exchange membrane fuel cells（PEMFC）.In this study,graphite-polypyrrole was coated on SS 316L by the method of cyclic voltammetry.The surface morphology and chemical composition of the graphite-polypyrrole composite coating were investigated by scanning electron microscopy（SEM） and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）.A simulated working environment of PEMFC was applied for testing the corrosion properties of graphite-polypyrrole coated SS 316L.The current densities in the simulated PEMFC anode and cathode conditions are around 3×10-9 and 9×10-5 A·cm-2,respectively.In addition,the interfacial contact resistance（ICR） was also investigated.The ICR value of graphite-polypyrrole coated SS 316L is much lower than that of bare SS 316L.Therefore,graphite-polypyrrole coated SS 316L indicates a great potential for the application in PEMFC.

Particle Swarm Optimization based predictive control of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC)

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) are the main focus of their current development as power sources because they are capable of higher power density and faster start-up than other fuel cells. The humidification system and output performance of PEMFC stack are briefly analyzed. Predictive control of PEMFC based on Support Vector Regression Machine (SVRM) is presented and the SVRM is constructed. The processing plant is modelled on SVRM and the predictive control law is obtained by using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The simulation and the results showed that the SVRM and the PSO re-ceding optimization applied to the PEMFC predictive control yielded good performance.

Dynamic Thermal Model and Temperature Control of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Stack

A dynamic thermal transfer model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack is developed based on energy conservation in order to reach better temperature control of PEMFC stack. Considering its uncertain parameters and disturbance, we propose a robust adaptive controller based on backstepping algorithm of Lyaponov function. Numerical simulations indicate the validity of the proposed controller.

Recent advances in phosphoric acid-based membranes for high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells

High-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells(HT-PEMFCs)are pursued worldwide as efficient energy conversion devices.Great efforts have been made in the area of designing and developing phosphoric acid(PA)-based proton exchange membrane(PEM)of HT-PEMFCs.This review focuses on recent advances in the limitations of acid-based PEM(acid leaching,oxidative degradation,and mechanical degradation)and the approaches mitigating the membrane degradation.Preparing multilayer or polymers with continuous network,adding hygroscopic inorganic materials,and introducing PA doping sites or covalent interactions with PA can effectively reduce acid leaching.Membrane oxidative degradation can be alleviated by synthesizing crosslinked or branched polymers,and introducing antioxidative groups or highly oxidative stable materials.Crosslinking to get a compact structure,blending with stable polymers and inorganic materials,preparing polymer with high molecular weight,and fabricating the polymer with PA doping sites away from backbones,are recommended to improve the membrane mechanical strength.Also,by comparing the running hours and decay rate,three current approaches,1.crosslinking via thermally curing or polymeric crosslinker,2.incorporating hygroscopic inorganic materials,3.increasing membrane layers or introducing strong basic groups and electron-withdrawing groups,have been concluded to be promising approaches to improve the durability of HT-PEMFCs.The overall aim of this review is to explore the existing degradation challenges and opportunities to serve as a solid basis for the deployment in the fuel cell market.

High-performance polymer electrolyte membranes incorporated with 2D silica nanosheets in high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Silica nanosheets(SN)derived from natural vermiculite(Verm)were successfully incorporated into polyethersulfone-polyvinylpyrrolidone(PES-PVP)polymer to fabricate high-temperature proton exchange membranes(HT-PEMs).The content of SN filler was varied(0.1-0.75 wt%)to study its influence on proton conductivity,power density and durability.Benefiting from the hydroxyl groups of SN that enable the formation of additional proton-transferring pathways,the inorganic-organic membrane displayed enhanced proton conductivity of 48.2 mS/cm and power density of 495 mW/cm^(2) at 150℃ without humidification when the content of SN is 0.25 wt%.Furthermore,exfoliated SN(E-SN)and sulfonated SN(S-SN),which were fabricated by a liquid-phase exfoliation method and silane condensation,respectively,were embedded in PES-PVP polymer matrix by a simple blending method.Due to the significant contribution from sulfonic groups in S-SN,the membrane with 0.25 wt%S-SN reached the highest proton conductivity of51.5 mS/cm and peak power density of 546 mW/cm^(2) at150℃,48%higher than the pristine PES-PVP membranes.Compared to unaltered PES-PVP membrane,SN added hybrid composite membrane demonstrated excellent durability for the fuel cell at 150℃.Using a facile method to prepare 2D SN from natural clay minerals,the strategy of exfoliation and functionalization of SN can be potentially used in the production of HT-PEMs.

High-performance proton exchange membrane fuel cell with ultra-low loading Pt on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes as integrated catalyst layer

Reducing a Pt loading with improved power output and durability is essential to promote the large-scale application of proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs).To achieve this goal,constructing optimized structure of catalyst layers with efficient mass transportation channels plays a vital role.Herein,PEMFCs with order-structured cathodic electrodes were fabricated by depositing Pt nanoparticles by Ebeam onto vertically aligned carbon nanotubes(VACNTs)growth on Al foil via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition.Results demonstrate that the proportion of hydrophilic Pt-deposited region along VACNTs and residual hydrophobic region of VANCTs without Pt strongly influences the cell performance,in particular at high current densities.When Pt nanoparticles deposit on the top depth of around 600 nm on VACNTs with a length of 4.6μm,the cell shows the highest performance,compared with others with various lengths of VACNTs.It delivers a maximum power output of 1.61 W cm^(-2)(H_(2)/O_(2),150 k Pa)and 0.79 W cm^(-2)(H_(2)/Air,150 k Pa)at Pt loading of 50μg cm^(-2),exceeding most of previously reported PEMFCs with Pt loading of<100μg cm^(-2).Even though the Pt loading is down to 30μg cm^(-2)(1.36 W cm^(-2)),the performance is also better than 100μg cm^(-2)(1.24 W cm^(-2))of commercial Pt/C,and presents better stability.This excellent performance is critical attributed to the ordered hydrophobic region providing sufficient mass passages to facilitate the fast water drainage at high current densities.This work gives a new understanding for oxygen reduction reaction occurred in VACNTs-based ordered electrodes,demonstrating the most possibility to achieve a substantial reduction in Pt loading<100μg cm^(-2) without sacrificing in performance.

Design and Performance Analysis of Micro Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

This study describes a novel micro proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC)(active area,2.5 cm2).The flow field plate is manufactured by applying micro-electromechanical systems(MEMS) technology to silicon substrates to etch flow channels without a gold-coating.Therefore,this investigation used MEMS technology for fabrication of a flow field plate and presents a novel fabrication procedure.Various operating parameters,such as fuel temperature and fuel stoichiometric flow rate,are tested to optimize micro PEMFC performance.A single micro PEMFC using MEMS technology reveals the ideal performance of the proposed fuel cell.The optimal power density approaches 232.75 mW·cm-1 when the fuel cell is operated at ambient condition with humidified,heated fuel.