Water plays a critical role on the performance, stability and lifetime of proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs). The addition of poly tetrafluoroethylene(PTFE) to the gas diffusion layer, especially, the cathode side, would optimize the transportation of water, electron and gas and thus improve the performance of the fuel cell. But until now, the studies about directly applying the PTFE to the catalyst layer are rarely reported. In this paper, the membrane electrode is fabricated by using directly coating catalyst to the membrane method(CCM) and applying PTFE directly to the cathode electrode catalyst layer. The performance of the single cell is determined by polarization curves and durability tests. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM) techniques are used to characterize the electrochemical properties of PEMFC. Also the performance of a 10-cells stack is detected. Combining the performance and the physical-chemistry characterization of PEMFC shows that addition of appropriate content of PTFE to the electrode enhances the performance of the fuel cell, which may be due to the improved water management. Addition of appropriate content of PTFE enhances the interaction between the membrane and the catalyst layer, and bigger pores and highly textured structure form in the MEA, which favors the oxygen mass transfer and protons transfer in the fuel cell. While superfluous addition of PTFE covers the surface of catalysts and hindered the contact of catalyst with Nafion, which leads to the reduction of electrochemical active area and the decay of the fuel cell performance. The proposed research would optimize the water management of the fuel cell and thus improve the performance of the fuel cell.
LIN RuiZHAO TiantianZHANG HaiyanCAO ChunhuiLI BingMA Jianxin
采用脉冲微波辅助化学还原法制备了钴-聚吡咯-碳载Pt催化剂(Pt/Co-PPy-C),并将其作为阴极催化剂,组装单电池。考察了电池运行温度和氢气/空气计量比对单电池性能的影响,并与商业Pt/C催化剂进行了耐久性实验比较。结果表明,运行温度为70℃,氢气与空气的计量比为1.2∶2.5时单电池性能最佳。600 m A/cm2恒电流稳定运行150 h耐久性测试中,以Pt/CoPPy-C为阴极催化剂的单电池平均电压衰退率为0.119 m V/h,是商业Pt/C催化剂的26%。耐久性测试前后,单电池的阴极电荷传递阻抗为7.176和8.767Ω,均比商业Pt/C催化剂阻抗小;Pt颗粒粒径从2.46 nm增长到3.18 nm,均小于商业Pt/C催化剂的粒径。这表明,以Pt/Co-PPy-C催化剂为阴极催化剂制备的单电池性能优良,在质子交换膜燃料电池中有广泛的应用前景。
