Comparison of Electrode Backing Materials for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

In a PEM fuel cell electrode, backing layer has tremendous impact on electrode performance. The backing layer provides structural support for the porous electrode, distributes the reactants to the other layers and acts as a current collector. It has major influence on the water management in a PEM fuel cell. Selection of suitable backing layer material for the fabrication of electrode is thus very important to achieve high performance. In this paper we have compared the performance of PEM fuel cell electrodes fabricated using carbon paper EC-TPI-060T, carbon cloth EC-CCI-060T, (ElectroChem Inc.USA) and Carbon cloth from Textron, USA (CPW 003 grade). Mass transport problem was observed under non-pressurized condition, at high current densities, in the caie of EC-CC1-060T carbon cloth electrode (at $50^{\circ}C$), due to its higher thickness. The performance of carbon paper electrode was higher than EC-CCI-060T carbon cloth electrode. The performance of Textron carbon cloth was comparable to EC-TPI -060T carbon paper.