Relation Between Current Density Distribution in Land-Channel Direction and Presence of Liquid Water in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Flow Channel

Abstract

Since most of the PEMFCs have land-channel geometry in their flow field, the distance between the flow channel to the catalyst layer is not uniform. The distance is longer from the flow channel to the catalyst layer under the land area than to the catalyst layer under the channel area. This difference causes the non-uniform current density in land-channel direction, and the distribution largely depends on the operating conditions. As the inlet gas humidity in the operating condition decreases, the trend in the current density distribution changes from high local current under the channel to relatively uniform, and to higher local current under the land (Figure 1). This trend is due to the combined effects of (1) non-uniform oxygen transport resistance, (2) non-uniform liquid water transport distance causing the local flooding under the land area at wet condition, and (3) the tendency of faster membrane dryout under the channel area at dry condition. In order to investigate the distributions of various parameters in the land-channel direction, a small-scale segmented cell with about 300-micron resolution was developed by the authors’ group, and successfully measured the current and high-frequency resistance distribution in the land-channel direction. Distribution of oxygen transport resistance from the flow channel to the catalyst layer was also measured using limiting current technique. In this study a new segmented cell is developed. Using the transparent cathode plate the behavior of liquid water in cathode flow channel can be observed, and simultaneously the current density distribution is measured in land-channel direction. With this cell the relation between the current density distribution in the land-channel direction and the presence of liquid water is investigated. First, it is studied that at what gas humidity and at what overall current density the liquid water starts emerging from the gas diffusion layer surface to the flow channel. This provides us the information about the dependency of the liquid water emergence location on the current density distribution is studied. Then, how the presence of liquid water in the flow channel changes the current distribution is studied. Figure 1