Effects of membrane electrode assembly components on proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. 165 - 170
• Main Authors: Bayrakçeken, Ayşe, Erkan, Serdar, Türker, Lemi, Eroğlu, İnci
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Equipments for energy generation and conversion: thermal, electrical, mechanical energy, etc; Exact sciences and technology; Fuel cells; Gas diffusion layer; Membrane electrode assembly; PEM fuel cell; Gas diffusion layer; Membrane electrode assembly; PEM fuel cell; Thickness; Gaseous diffusion; Hydrogen; Tetrafluoroethylene polymer; Membrane; Performance; Proton exchange membrane fuel cells; Catalyst
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2007.08.021

The objective of this study is to determine the effects of various factors on the performance of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. These factors are membrane thickness, hot-pressing conditions of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) either onto the membrane or membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and Teflon:carbon ratio in the GDL on PEM fuel cell performance. Homemade five-layer and commercial three-layer MEAs were used in the experiments. Nafion
®
112 and 115 which have nominal thicknesses of 50 and
125
μ
m
, respectively, were used as membranes. It was observed that fuel cell performance is inversely proportional to membrane thickness. In the case of five-layer MEAs, optimum hot-pressing conditions of catalyst-coated GDLs onto the membrane were found as
172
N
cm
-
2
. However, the maximum performance for three-layer MEAs was obtained with no press conditions. Also, by increasing Teflon:carbon ratio in the GDLs, PEM fuel cell performance increases up to a certain value, but further increase of this ratio worsen the performance.