Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Single and Double-sided Coated Gas Diffusion Layers used in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells: A Numerical Study

Isaac Chukwuemezu Okereke
ORCID logo ,
Mohammed S. Ismail
ORCID logo ,
Derek Ingham
,
Kevin Hughes
* ORCID logo ,
Lin Ma
,
Mohammed Pourkashanian
Version 1 : Received: 29 April 2023 / Approved: 4 May 2023 / Online: 4 May 2023 (11:16:15 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Okereke, I.C.; Ismail, M.S.; Ingham, D.B.; Hughes, K.; Ma, L.; Pourkashanian, M. Single- and Double-Sided Coated Gas Diffusion Layers Used in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells: A Numerical Study. Energies 2023, 16, 4363. Okereke, I.C.; Ismail, M.S.; Ingham, D.B.; Hughes, K.; Ma, L.; Pourkashanian, M. Single- and Double-Sided Coated Gas Diffusion Layers Used in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells: A Numerical Study. Energies 2023, 16, 4363.

Abstract

A new three-dimensional numerical model of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) with a single straight channel has been developed to primarily investigate the important impact of the double-sided microporous layer (MPL) coating on the overall performance of the fuel cell and the distribution of the current and the oxygen concentration within the cathode gas diffusion layers (GDLs). Realistic experimentally estimated interfacial contact resistance values between the gas diffusion layer and each of the bipolar plates and the catalyst layer values were incorporated into the model, and parametric studies were performed. The results showed that the double-sided MPL coating could significantly improve the fuel cell performance by up to 30%. Also, it was shown that the neglect of the contact resistance between the MPL and the catalyst layer could overestimate the fuel cell performance by up to 6%. In addition, the results showed that the fuel cell performance and the distribution of the current and oxygen are more sensitive to the porosity of the MPL facing the bipolar plate than the porosity of the MPL facing the catalyst layer. All the above results are presented and critically discussed in detail.

Keywords

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells; Gas diffusion layers; Microporous layer; Double-sided coating; Contact resistance; Porosity

Subject

Engineering, Energy and Fuel Technology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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