Investigating the Suitability of Printed Circuit Components for Fuel Cells

Abstract

Flexible electrochemical energy sources using non-traditional cell materials and topologies have attracted growing attention because they offer unique design opportunities that are still being explored. They also offer potential advantages such as conformability, high power density, high specific power, and low cost through the adoption of electronics manufacturing techniques. This study examines the feasibility of using flexible printed circuits boards (PCBs) as the anode and cathode current collectors (CCs) of single cell Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFCs). In this work, we determine the best anode and cathode interfaces at which to embed flexible CCs to obtain the highest power, as illustrated in Figure 1. The flexible anode and cathode CCs are embedded A) inside the PEM|Catalyst Layer (CL) interface, B) between the CL|Micro Porous Layer (MPL) interface and C) between the Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL)| Flow field (FF) interface. The performance of the single cell PEMFC with the embedded flexible anode and cathode CCs at the different interfaces described in Figure 1 is investigated by using I-V polarization curves, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and thermal imaging. The performance of the cells tested with the embedded flexible CCs is compared to the performance of a standard cell. This study also investigates the effect of varying the anode and cathode CC geometry (square shape vs. circular) and opening ratio (20%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 60%) on the cell performance. Figure 1