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Patterned Membranes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Working at Low Humidity
High performing proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) that can operate at low relative humidity is a continuing technical challenge for PEMFC developers. In this work, micro-patterned membranes are demonstrated at the cathode side by solution casting techniques using stainless steel moulds wi...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8235781/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34208568 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13121976 |
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author | Fernihough, Oliver Cheshire, Holly Romano, Jean-Michel Ibrahim, Ahmed El-Kharouf, Ahmad Du, Shangfeng |
author_facet | Fernihough, Oliver Cheshire, Holly Romano, Jean-Michel Ibrahim, Ahmed El-Kharouf, Ahmad Du, Shangfeng |
author_sort | Fernihough, Oliver |
collection | PubMed |
description | High performing proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) that can operate at low relative humidity is a continuing technical challenge for PEMFC developers. In this work, micro-patterned membranes are demonstrated at the cathode side by solution casting techniques using stainless steel moulds with laser-imposed periodic surface structures (LIPSS). Three types of patterns, lotus, lines, and sharklet, are investigated for their influence on the PEMFC power performance at varying humidity conditions. The experimental results show that the cathode electrolyte pattern, in all cases, enhances the fuel cell power performance at 100% relative humidity (RH). However, only the sharklet pattern exhibits a significant improvement at 25% RH, where a peak power density of 450 mW cm(−2) is recorded compared with 150 mW cm(−2) of the conventional flat membrane. The improvements are explored based on high-frequency resistance, electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), and hydrogen crossover by in situ membrane electrode assembly (MEA) testing. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8235781 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-82357812021-06-27 Patterned Membranes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Working at Low Humidity Fernihough, Oliver Cheshire, Holly Romano, Jean-Michel Ibrahim, Ahmed El-Kharouf, Ahmad Du, Shangfeng Polymers (Basel) Article High performing proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) that can operate at low relative humidity is a continuing technical challenge for PEMFC developers. In this work, micro-patterned membranes are demonstrated at the cathode side by solution casting techniques using stainless steel moulds with laser-imposed periodic surface structures (LIPSS). Three types of patterns, lotus, lines, and sharklet, are investigated for their influence on the PEMFC power performance at varying humidity conditions. The experimental results show that the cathode electrolyte pattern, in all cases, enhances the fuel cell power performance at 100% relative humidity (RH). However, only the sharklet pattern exhibits a significant improvement at 25% RH, where a peak power density of 450 mW cm(−2) is recorded compared with 150 mW cm(−2) of the conventional flat membrane. The improvements are explored based on high-frequency resistance, electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), and hydrogen crossover by in situ membrane electrode assembly (MEA) testing. MDPI 2021-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8235781/ /pubmed/34208568 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13121976 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Fernihough, Oliver Cheshire, Holly Romano, Jean-Michel Ibrahim, Ahmed El-Kharouf, Ahmad Du, Shangfeng Patterned Membranes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Working at Low Humidity |
title | Patterned Membranes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Working at Low Humidity |
title_full | Patterned Membranes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Working at Low Humidity |
title_fullStr | Patterned Membranes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Working at Low Humidity |
title_full_unstemmed | Patterned Membranes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Working at Low Humidity |
title_short | Patterned Membranes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Working at Low Humidity |
title_sort | patterned membranes for proton exchange membrane fuel cells working at low humidity |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8235781/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34208568 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13121976 |
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