How important is oxygen transport in agglomerates in a PEM fuel cell catalyst layer?

Abstract

We derive analytical solution for the polarization curve of the cathode catalyst layer (CCL), taking into account oxygen transport in agglomerates of carbon particles. The solution shows that in modern catalyst layers with agglomerates of the radius ≲100 nm, the oxygen transport in agglomerates manifests itself at cell potentials below 100 mV only. Thus, the account of this transport in CCL modeling is redundant, i.e., the standard macro–homogeneous model is adequate for CCL performance simulations.