Facilitation of water management in low Pt loaded PEM fuel cell by creating hydrophobic microporous layer with PTFE, FEP and PDMS polymers: Effect of polymer and carbon amounts

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 42; no. 33; pp. 21226 - 21249
• Main Authors: Öztürk, Ayşenur, Fıçıcılar, Berker, Eroğlu, İnci, Bayrakçeken Yurtcan, Ayşe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 17.08.2017
• Subjects: Hydrophobic material; Microporous layer; PEM fuel cell; Polydimethylsiloxane; Water management; Hydrophobic material; Microporous layer; Water management; Polydimethylsiloxane; PEM fuel cell
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.06.202

Microporous layers (MPLs) were prepared with different hydrophobic polymers to establish water management in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Besides conventionally used polymers polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), two different molecular weights (MW) of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer were used as hydrophobic materials in MPL. Membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) having MPLs with low MW PDMS polymer exhibited the best fuel cell performance compared to the PTFE and FEP based ones. Thus it is concluded that PDMS polymer has a great potential to be used as hydrophobic material for MPL to reduce flooding phenomena in PEM fuel cell. [Display omitted] •PDMS was used as alternative hydrophobic material to PTFE and FEP polymers in MPL.•Two different molecular weights (MW) of PDMS polymer were used.•Low MW of PDMS provided more hydrophobicity to MPL.•PDMS proved superior fuel cell performance although its quite low amount.•The highest PEMFC performance was obtained with low MW of PDMS (3 wt%).