Abstract
Polymer Electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) are comparatively efficient, environmental friendly, and scalable energy converters suitable to a wide range of applications. Heat transport in PEFC is very important to improve cell performance. Especially, heat transport characteristics of gas diffusion layer (GDL) have strong influences on PEFC performance. However, characteristics of GDL for heat transport haven't been figured out yet, clearly. In this study, we measured thermal conductivity in the through-plane direction of GDL varying degree of water content in GDL by steady state method. In addition, we visualized water distribution inside GDL by simultaneous using X-ray radiography. As a result, we found that water distribution and degree of water content inside GDL strongly affect the thermal conductivity of GDL and thermal contact resistance between GDL and standard materials.
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