• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.568-574
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• 2020

Gas diffusion layer (GDL) is one of the main components of PEMFC as a pathway of reactants from a flow field to an electrode, water transport in reverse direction, heat management and structural support of MEA. In this study, the effect of GDL on fuel cell performance was investigated for commercial products such as 39BC and JNT30-A3. Polarization curve measurements were performed at different flow rates and relative humidity conditions using 25 ㎠ unit cell. The parameters on operating conditions were calculated using an empirical equation. The electrical resistance increased as the GDL PTFE content increased. The crack of microporous layer had influence on the concentration loss as water pathway. In addition, the ohmic resistance increased as the relative humidity decreased, but decreased as the current density increased due to water formation. Curve fitting analysis using the empirical equation model was applied to identify the tendency of performance parameters on operating conditions for the gas diffusion layer.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.270-278
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• 2007

PEMFC electrodes with various gas diffusion layers (GDL) were characterized to find out the effect of GDL on fuel cell performance. The physical properties of GDL such as electric conductivity, porosity, air permeability, water flux, PTFE content, etc had close relationship each other and affected on the variation of the cell performance. It was observed that the micro-porous layer (MPL) on carbon paper or cloth changed the physical properties of GDL and changed the cell performance. The variation of cell performance as a function of the physical properties of GDL showed different behaviors according to the amount of current density.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2012

The serpentine flow channel is widely used in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to prevent flooding phenomena because it effectively removes liquid water in the flow channel. The pressure drop between inlet and outlet increases as compared with straight channels due to minor losses associated with the corners of the turning configurations. This results in a strong pressure gradient between adjacent channels in specific regions, where some amount of reactant gas can be delivered to catalyst layers by convection through a gas diffusion layer (GDL). The enhancement of the convective flow in the GDL, so-called bypass flow, affects fuel cell performance since the bypass flow influences the reactant transport and thus its concentration over the active area. In the present paper, for the bipolar plate design, a simple analytic model has been proposed to predict the bypass flow in the serpentine type flow channels and validated with three-dimensional numerical simulation results.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.1975-1979
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• 2011

The modification of a gas diffusion layer (GDL), a vital component in polymer electrolyte fuel cells, is described here for use in the electrochemical detection of antibody-antigen biosensors. Compared to other substrates (gold foil and graphite), mouse anti-rHBsAg monoclonal antibody immobilized on gold-coated GDL (G-GDL) detected analytes of goat anti-mouse IgG antibody-ALP using a relatively low potential (-0.0021 V vs. Ag/AgCl 3 M NaCl), indicating that undesired by-reactions during electrochemical sensing should be avoided with G-GDL. The dependency of the signal against the concentration of analytes was observed, demonstrating the possibility of quantitative electrochemical biosensors based on G-GDL substrates. When a sandwich method was employed, target antigens of rHBsAg with a concentration as low as 500 ng/mL were clearly measured. The detection limit of rHBsAg was significantly improved to 10 ng/mL when higher concentrations of the 4-aminophenylphosphate monosodium salt (APP) acting on substrates were used for generating a redox-active product. Additionally, it was shown that a BSA blocking layer was essential in improving the detection limit in the G-GDL biosensor.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.691-695
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• 2017

Optimization study was carried out to improve the durability of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) in alkaline fuel cell cathode by the use of highly stable PDMS superhydrophobic coating. Two different commercial GDLs were selected as substrates. Coating temperature and viscosity of PDMS were controlled for the stability of structure in microporous layer of GDL as well as uniform coating according to thermal characteristics of GDL. Regardless of PDMS viscosity, highly stable superhydrophobicities were obtained with both GDLs at $200^{\circ}C$. After the accelerated test, however, 28BC GDL coated with 1000 CS PDMS showed the best durability with the lowest loss of superhydrophobicity.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1715-1721
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• 2002

Numerical analysis was conducted to characterize the gas flow field and particle deposition on a horizontal freestanding semiconductor wafer under the laminar flow field at vacuum environment. In order to calculate the properties of gas, the gas was assumed to obey the ideal gas law. The particle transport mechanisms considered were convection, Brownian diffusion and gravitational settling. The averaged particle deposition velocities and their radial distributions fnr the upper surface of the wafer were calculated from the particle concentration equation in an Eulerian frame of reference for system pressures of 1 mbar~1 atm and particle sizes of 2nm~10$^4$ nm(10 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$). It was observed that as the system pressure decreases, the boundary layer of gas flow becomes thicker and the deposition velocities are increased over the whole range of particle size. One thing to be noted here is that the deposition velocities are increased in the diffusion dominant particle size range with decreasing system pressure, whereas the thickness of the boundary layer is larger. This contradiction is attributed to the increase of particle mechanical mobility and the consequent increase of Brownian diffusion with decreasing the system pressure. The present numerical results showed good agreement with the results of the approximate model and the available experimental data.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.605-615
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• 1996

Laminar flows in which mixing and chemical reactions take place between parallel streams of reactive species are studied numerically. The governing equations for laminar flows are from two-dimensional compressible boundary-layer equations. The chemistry is a finite rate single step irreversible reaction with Arrhenius kinetics. Ignition, premixed flame, and diffusion flame regimes are found to exist in the laminar reacting mixing layer at high activation energy. At high Mach numbers, ignition occurs earlier due to the higher temperatures in the unburnt gas. In diffusion regimes, property variations affect the laminar profiles considerably and need to be included when there are large temperature differences. The maximum temperature of a laminar reacting mixing layer is almost linear with the adiabatic flame temperature at low heat release, but only weakly at high heat release.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.64-77
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• 1989

In this study, the experiments were carried out for the purpose of establishment of aluminium cementation to steel surface by diffusible heat treatment after making the coated film onto the substrate by arc spray method. Also, the microstructure and mechanical properties of the cementation layer produced by this study were inspected for various heat treatment and spraying conditions. Main results obtained are as follow ; 1. The coating film characteristics which have excellent errosion-resistance, high temperature oxidation-resistance are obtained by aluminium penetration heat treatment after making the sprayed aluminum coating film onto the steel substrate. 2. Aluminium diffusion penetration takes place at higher temperature than 660.deg.C, and the more heat treatment time and the higher heat treatment temperature adopted, the deeper diffusion layer obtained. 3. Insert gas arc spraying using argon gas as the carrier gas higher improvement of mechanical property than that of compressed air environment. 4. The coating film characteristics appeared to be improvement of adhesive property, porosity plugging effect by heat treatment in air environment.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.75.2-75.2
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• 2010

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) have received a lot of attention as a power source for both stationary and mobile applications due to their attractive feature. In general, the performance of PEFCs is highly affected by the property of the electrodes. A PEFC electrode essentially consists of a gas diffusion layer and a catalyst layer. The gas difusion layer is highly porous and hydrophobicized with PTFE polymer. The catalyst layer usually contains electrocatalyst, proton conducting polymer, even PTFE as additive. Particularly, the proton conducting ionomer helps to increase the catalytic activity at three-phase boundary and catalyst utilization. Futhermore, it helps to retain moisture, resulting in preventing the electrodes from membrane dehydration. The most widely used proton conducting ionomer is perfluorinated sulfonic acid polymer, namely, Nafion from DuPont due to its high proton conductivity and good mechanical property. However, there are great demands for alternative ionomers based on non-fluorinated materials in terms of high temperature availability, environmental adaptability and production cost. In this study, the electrodes with the various content of the sulfonated poly(ether sulfone) ionomer in the catalyst layer were prepared. In addition, we evaluated electrochemical properties of the prepared electrodes containing the various amount of the ionomers by using the cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy to find an optimal ionomer composition in the catalyst layer.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.761-769
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• 2007

The configuration of the flow channel on a bipolar plate of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) for efficient reactant supply has great influence on the performance of the fuel cell. Recent demand for higher energy density fuel cells requires an increase in current density at mid voltage range and a decrease in concentration overvoltage at high current density. Therefore, an interdigitated flow channel where mass transfer rate by convection through a gas diffusion layer is greater than the mass transfer by a diffusion mechanism through a gas diffusion layer was recently proposed. This study attempts to analyze the i-V performance, mass transfer and pressure drop in interdigitated flow channels by developing a fully three dimensional simulation model for PEMFC that can deal with anode and cathode flow together. The results indicate that the trade off between performance and pressure loss should be considered for efficient design of flow channels. Although the performance of the fuel cell with interdigitated flow is better than that with conventional flow channels due to a strong mass transfer rate by convection across a gas diffusion layer, there is also an increase in friction due to the strong convection through the porous diffusion layer accompanied by a larger pressure drop along the flow channel. It was evident that the proper selection of the ratio of channel and rib width under counter flow conditions in the fuel cell with interdigitated flow are necessary to optimize the interdigitated flow field design.