Improved PEM fuel cell performance with hydrophobic catalyst layers

Date

2018-10-04

Author

Avcioglu, Gokce S.
FIÇICILAR, BERKER
Eroğlu, İnci

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

146
views

0
downloads

Flooding of catalyst layers is one of the major issues, which effects performance of low temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Rendering catalyst layers hydrophobic one may improve the performance of PEMFC depending on Pt percentage in the catalyst and Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) loading on the electrode. In this study, effect of hydrophobicity in catalyst layers on performance has been investigated by comparing performances of membrane electrode assemblies prepared with 48% Pt/C. Ultrasonic coating technique was used to manufacture highly efficient electrodes. Power density at 0.45 V increased by the addition of PTFE, from 0.95 to 1.01 W/cm(2) with H-2/O-2 feed; while it slightly increased from 0.52 W/cm(2) to 0.53 W/cm(2) with H-2/Air feed. Addition of PTFE to catalyst layers while keeping Pt loading constant, enhanced performance providing improved water management. Kinetic activity increased by decreasing Nafion loading from 0.37 mg/cm(2) to 0.25 mg/cm(2) while introducing PTFE (0.12 mg/cm(2)) to the electrode. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results proved that charge transfer resistance decreased with hydrophobic catalyst layers for H-2/O-2 feed. This is attributed to enhanced water management due to PTFE presence. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Subject Keywords

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell, Electrocatalyst, Catalyst Layer, Hydrophobicity, Water Management

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/56466

Journal

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.03.045

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

High performance PEM fuel cell catalyst layers with hydrophobic channels Avcioglu, Gokce S.; FIÇICILAR, BERKER; BAYRAKÇEKEN YURTCAN, Ayşe; Eroğlu, İnci (2015-06-29) Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell performance has been enhanced with efficient water management by modification of the structure of the catalyst layer. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) was added to the catalyst layer structure by using two-step catalyst ink preparation method. Physical and electrochemical characterization of catalyst layers with hydrophobic nanoparticles were investigated via TGA-DTA, XRD, nitrogen physisorption, SEM, TEM, EDX analysis, and cyclic voltammetry technique. In addition, perf...
Development of self-humidifying nano-composite membrane for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell Çaçan, Umut Baki; Özkan, Necati; Devrim, Yılser; Department of Polymer Science and Technology (2015) Low humidity self-humidifying nano-composite membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) were developed for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) working at elevated temperatures. The nano-composite membranes were prepared by adding nano-sized silica particles (SiO2) or inorganic fillers with a size of approximately 20 nm to a polymeric material which is commercially named as Nafion (Perfluoro Sulfonic Acid/PFSA). The particle content of the nano-composite membranes were between 2.5 – 10 wt. %. In this man...
Modeling of a high temperature PEM fuel cell Sezgin, Berna; Eroğlu, İnci; Devrim, Yılser; Department of Chemical Engineering (2016) High temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFC) are considered as the next generation of fuel cells since high temperature operation for PEM fuel cells has several advantages such as single phase operation, high carbon monoxide tolerance, low or zero carbon emission and removal of some equipment from the system. In order to obtain high performances, HT-PEMFC systems should be optimized in terms of dimensions, materials, operating conditions and other parameters. Modeling can help to pre-...
Improvement of PEMFC performance with Nafion/inorganic nanocomposite membrane electrode assembly prepared by ultrasonic coating technique Devrim, Yilser; Erkan, Serdar; BAÇ, NURCAN; Eroğlu, İnci (2012-11-01) electrode assemblies with Nafion/nanosize titanium silicon dioxide (TiSiO4) composite membranes were manufactured with a novel ultrasonic-spray technique and tested in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Nafion/TiO2 and Nafion/SiO2 nanocomposite membranes were also fabricated by the same technique and their characteristics and performances in PEMFC were compared with Nafion/TiSiO4 mixed oxide membrane. The composite membranes have been characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron m...
Influence of FEP nanoparticles in catalyst layer on water management and performance of PEM fuel cell with high Pt loading Avcioglu, Gokce S.; FIÇICILAR, BERKER; Eroğlu, İnci (2017-01-05) In this study, fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) nanoparticles were added to catalyst layer (CL) to facilitate excess water removal from the triple phase boundary in high Pt loading (1.2 mg/cm(2)) proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) electrodes. The loading of PEP in the catalyst ink was varied from zero to 30 weight percentage. High-performance electrodes for anode and cathode were prepared by ultrasonic spray coating technique with a commercial catalyst containing 70 wt. % Pt on carbon. Different...

Citation Formats

G. S. Avcioglu, B. FIÇICILAR, and İ. Eroğlu, “Improved PEM fuel cell performance with hydrophobic catalyst layers,” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY, pp. 18632–18641, 2018, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/56466.