• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2013

Polymer exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells have multifunctional properties, and bipolar plates are one of the key components in these fuel cells. Generally, a bipolar plate has a gas flow path for hydrogen and oxygen liberated at the anode and cathode, respectively. In this study, the influence of iodine applied to a bipolar plate was investigated. Accordingly, we compared bipolar plates with and without iodine coating, and the performances of these plates were evaluated under operating conditions of $75^{\circ}C$ and 100% relative humidity. The membrane and platinum-carbon layer were affected by the iodine-coated bipolar plate. Bipolar plates coated with iodine and a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) were investigated by electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. Polarization curves showed that the performance of a coated bipolar plate is approximately 19% higher than that of a plate without coating. Moreover, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis revealed that charge transfer resistance and membrane resistance decreased with the influence of the iodine charge transfer complex for fuel cells on the performance.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.549-554
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• 2008

Proton conducting crosslinked membranes were prepared using polymer blends of polystyrene-b-poly(hydroxyethyl acrylate)-b-poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PS-b-PHEA-b-PSSA) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). PS-b-PHEA-b-PSSA triblock copolymer at 28:21:51 wt% was synthesized sequentially using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). FT-IR spectroscopy showed that after thermal ($120^{\circ}C$, 2 h) and chemical (sulfosuccinic acid, SA) treatments of the membranes, the middle PHEA block of the triblock copolymer was crosslinked with PVA through an esterification reaction between the -OH group of the membrane and the -COOH group of SA. The ion exchange capacity (IEC) decreased from 1.56 to 0.61 meq/g with increasing amount of PVA. Therefore, the proton conductivity at room temperature decreased from 0.044 to 0.018 S/cm. However, the introduction of PVA resulted in a decrease in water uptake from 87.0 to 44.3%, providing good mechanical properties applicable to the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of fuel cells. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that the membrane was microphase-separated with a nanometer range with good connectivity of the $SO_3H$ ionic aggregates. The power density of a single $H_2/O_2$ fuel cell system using the membrane with 50 wt% PVA was $230\;mW/cm^2$ at $70^{\circ}C$ with a relative humidity of 100%. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) also showed a decrease in the thermal stability of the membranes with increasing PVA concentration.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2024

As the demand for hydrogen electric vehicles for commercial vehicles increases, the durability of PEMFCs must increase more than five times that of passenger cars, so research and development to improve durability is urgent. When the PEMFC membrane electrode assembly (MEA) undergoes chemical degradation, the MEA thickness decreases and pinholes occur. In this study, changes in the performance and durability of the MEA were measured while increasing the clamping pressure of the unit cell after open circuit voltage (OCV) holding, an accelerated chemical degradation experiment. As the clamping pressure increased, the resistance of the polymer membrane and the membrane/electrode contact resistance decreased, improving the I-V performance and reducing the hydrogen permeability. As the hydrogen permeability decreased, the OCV increased. When the pinhole area was removed and the MEA clamping pressure was increased, the hydrogen permeability decreased sharply, confirming that the local degradation has a large effect on the performance and durability of the entire cell. When the pinhole was removed and re-clamping and OCV holding was evaluated, it was confirmed that the durability improved according to the decrease in membrane resistance and hydrogen permeability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.449-454
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• 2006

Neutron imaging technique was used to investigate the water distribution and movement in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) at HANARO, KAERI. The Feasibility tests were performed in the first and second exposure rooms at the neutron radiography facility (NRF) at HANARO in order to check the ability of each exposure room, respectively. The feasibility test apparatus was composed of water and pressurized air before making up the actual test apparatus. Due to the low neutron intensity in the second exposure room, the exposure time was too long to investigate the transient phenomena of PEMFC. Although the exposure time was improved to 0.1 sec in the first exposure room, it was difficult to discriminate detail water movement at the channel due to the high noise level. Therefore, the experimental setup must be optimized according to the test conditions. Water discharge characteristics were investigated under different flow field geometries by using feasibility test apparatus and the neutron imaging technique. The water discharge characteristics of a 3-parallel serpentine are superior to those of a 1-parallel serpentine, but water at Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) was not removed, regardless of the flow field type.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2012

This paper presents a three-dimensional, transient cold-start polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) model to numerically evaluate the effects of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design and cell location in a PEFC stack on PEFC cold start behaviors. The cold-start simulations show that the end cell experiences significant heat loss to the sub-freezing ambient and thus finally cold-start failure due to considerable ice filling in the cathode catalyst layer. On the other hand, the middle cells in the stack successfully start from $-30^{\circ}C$ sub-freezing temperature due to rapid cell temperature rise owing to the efficient use of waste heat generated during the cold-start. In addition, the simulation results clearly indicate that the cathode catalyst layer (CL) composition and thickness have an substantial influence on PEFC cold-start behaviors while membrane thickness has limited effect mainly due to inefficient water absorption and transport capability at subzero temperatures.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.311-319
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• 2013

A clear understanding on cell voltage-reversal behavior due to local hydrogen starvation in a stack is of paramount importance to operate the fuel cell vehicle (FCV) stably since it affects significantly the cell performance and durability. In the present study, a novel experimental method to simulate the local cell voltage-reversal behavior caused by local hydrogen starvation, which typically occurs only one or several cells out of several hundred cells in a stack of FCV, has been proposed. Contrary to the conventional method of overall fuel starvation, the present method of local hydrogen starvation caused the local cell voltage-reversal behavior in a stack very well. Degradation of both membrane electrode assembly (i.e., pin-hole formation) and gas diffusion layer due to an excessive exothermic heat under voltage-reversal condition was also observed clearly.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.86-93
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• 2007

The PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell is one of the promising fuel cell systems as a new small power generating device for automobiles and buildings. The optimal design of cooling plates installed between MEA (membrane electrode assembly) is very important to achieve high performance and reliability of the PEMFC because it is very sensitive to temperature variations. In this study, six types of cooling plate models for the PEMFC including basic serpentine and parallel shapes were designed and their cooling performances were analyzed by using three-dimensional fluid dynamics with commercial software. The model 3 designed by revising the basic serpentine model represented the best cooling performance among them in the aspect of uniformity of temperature distribution and thermal reliability, The serpentine models showed higher pressure drop than the parallel models due to a higher flow rate.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 2015

A stack in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) consists of bipolar plates, a membrane electrode assembly, a gas diffusion layer, a collector and end plates. High current density is usually obtainable partially from uniform temperature distribution in the fuel cell. A size optimization method considering the thermal expansion effect of stacked plates was developed on the basis of finite element analyses. The thermal stresses in end, bipolar, and cooling plates were calculated based on temperature distribution obtained from thermal analyses. Finally, the optimization method was applied and optimum thicknesses of the three plates were calculated considering both fastening bolt tension and thermal expansion of each unit cell (72 cells, 5kW). The optimum design considering both thermal and mechanical loads increases the thickness of an end plate by 0.64-0.83% the case considering only mechanical load. The effect can be enlarged if the number of stack increases as in an automotive application to 200-300 stacks.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.99-102
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• 2006

Optimal flow-field design of bipolar-plates for a commercial class PEM(polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stack was carried out on the basis of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation. A three-dimensional CFD model originally developed by Shimpalee et al., has been utilized for performing large-scale simulation of a single fuel cell consisting of bipolar-plates gas diffusion layers, and a membrane-electrode-assembly(MEA). The CFD model is able to predict the current density, pressure drops, gas velocities, vapor and liquid water contents, temperature distributions, etc. inside a single fuel cell. Depending on simulation results from the CFD modeling of a PEM fuel cell, several flow-fields of bipolar-plates were designed and verified. The final design of the bipolar-plate has been chosen from the simulations and experimental tests and showed the best performance as expected from the simulation results under a normal operating condition. Thus, the CFD simulation approach to design the optimal flow-field of the bipolar-plates was successful. The final design was adopted as the best flow-field to build a commercial scale PEM fuel cell stack, the performance of which shows about 42% higher than that of the older bipolar-plate design.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.21-26
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• 2007

DMFC(Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) has been considered as an attractive option to produce electric power in many application. In this study, in order to estimate the effects of the methanol concentration, wind velocity and temperature on the performance of DMFC, a physical prototype of DMFC was designed and manufactured, and the stack voltage of DMFC was measured during the operation of DMFC. Expecially, the experimental results showed that a low stack temperature, a low wind velocity and an excess methanol concentration lead to the increase of the time to reach the maximum stack voltage.