Abstract
Water plugging in cathode channel of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) is one of the critical issues for high performance operation. In this study, the optical visualization of liquid water behavior and the differential pressure measurement in the cathode channel of an operating PEFC were simultaneously performed using the transparent separators with different wettabilities, and the effects of channel structures (serpentine and parallel) and wettability on the liquid water transport were investigated. It was found that the hydrophobic or hydrophilic treatment reduce the pressure drop in the serpentine flow field. On the other hand, in the case of parallel flow field, the cell voltage of the hydrophilic channel is more stable than that of the untreated channel, but the hydrophobic treatment decreases the cell performance.
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