Effect of GDL Material on Thermal Gradients along the Reactant Flow Channels in PEMFCs

• Main Authors: See, Evan, Kandlikar, Satish G
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1938-5862; 1938-6737
• DOI: 10.1149/05801.0867ecst

Water and thermal management techniques remain as keyroadblocks to widespread commercial implementation of PEMFCs.Typically, within PEMFCs a temperature gradient is seen betweenthe inlet and the outlet of the flow channels. The thermal propertiesand morphological structure of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) arebelieved to play an important role in the temperature variation. Inthis work, an experimental PEMFC with thin foil thermocoupleswere used to measure the temperature just above the membranenear the inlet and outlet locations. Four commercially availableGDLs (Toray TGP-H-060, MRC-105, SGL 25BC, andFreudenberg H2315) were tested in order to investigate their rolein liquid water transport. The GDL morphology was analyzedusing confocal laser scanning microscopy. Thermal gradients weremeasured for all four GDLs at various conditions. It is seen thatthe GDL material properties, in particular the in-plane thermalconductivity, plays an important role in the overall cellperformance due to changes temperature profile and waterdistribution in the flow channels.