Water management is one of the most important issues in fuel cell operating system because too low water contents in membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) result in poor proton conductivity, on the contrary, too much water contents cause water flooding. Water contents are significantly affected by various operational and structural parameters such as humidified/non-humidified reactant gases, flow rates of gases, operation temperature, and fabrication methods. There are some ways to control the amounts of water in fuel cell system, especially, the easiest and powerful way is controlling the micro-porous layers (MPL) which provide proper pores for diffusion of supplying gases and expulsion of excess water. This research will be discussed the MEA structures with improved performances through the introduction of the functionalized binder materials and deposited position of the MPL. According to the electrochemical analysis, these modifications exhibited remarkably improvements on the water management in fuel cell system.

Modified fabrication methods of membrane-electrode assembly for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

244th National Meeting (2012)

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