Rational design strategy for optimization of clamping pressure to minimize contact resistance between electrode and current collector while preserving porosity of electrodes in water electrolyzers

Rational design strategy for optimization of clamping pressure to minimize contact resistance between electrode and current collector while preserving porosity of electrodes in water electrolyzers

The compressive clamping pressure at the interface of gas‐diffusion‐layer (GDL) and current collector decreases the contact resistance between them though it reduces the porosity and surface roughness of electrocatalysts, which would in turn decrease the efficiency of an electrolyzer. We explore the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of chemical engineering Vol. 96; no. 4; pp. 881 - 885
Main Authors: Kishor, Koshal, Parashtekar, Alhad, Saha, Sulay, Sivakumar, Sri, Ramkumar, Janakaraman, Pala, Raj Ganesh S.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-04-2018
Subjects:
Clamping
clamping pressure
Contact pressure
Contact resistance
Design optimization
Diffusion layers
Electrocatalysts
Electrodes
Maxima
performance index
Porosity
Surface roughness
water electrolyzers
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Summary:The compressive clamping pressure at the interface of gas‐diffusion‐layer (GDL) and current collector decreases the contact resistance between them though it reduces the porosity and surface roughness of electrocatalysts, which would in turn decrease the efficiency of an electrolyzer. We explore these issues of trade‐off between porosity versus contact resistance and provide a design heuristic for optimum clamping pressure. The present work provides an estimate of the optimal value of clamping pressure for an alkaline water electrolyzer having membrane electrode assembly (MEA), taking account of the variation in porosity of catalyst layers and contact resistance obtained via half‐cell studies performed at different pressures. Towards this, we define the performance‐index (Φ) which is the ratio of Faradaic current density and resistances resulting from contact‐interfaces in electrolyzers and we suggest that the maxima in Φ corresponds to optimum clamping pressure. The variation of performance index (Φ) with clamping pressure when (a) graphite or (b) stainless steel used as current collector.
ISSN:0008-4034
1939-019X
DOI:10.1002/cjce.23036