Development of a hydrophobic coating for the porous gas diffusion layer in a PEM-based electrochemical hydrogen pump to mitigate anode flooding

• Published in: Electrochemistry communications Vol. 100; pp. 39 - 42
• Main Authors: Lee, Myoungseok, Huang, Xinyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.03.2019; Elsevier
• Subjects: Anode flooding; Gas diffusion layer; Hydrophobic coating; Hydrophobicity; Porous media; Proton exchange membrane (PEM) hydrogen pump; Porous media; Hydrophobicity; Hydrophobic coating; Gas diffusion layer; Proton exchange membrane (PEM) hydrogen pump; Anode flooding
• ISSN: 1388-2481; 1873-1902
• DOI: 10.1016/j.elecom.2019.01.017

Anode flooding is one of the critical issues in developing a proton exchange membrane (PEM)-based electrochemical hydrogen pump. Improving the hydrophobicity of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) has been studied as an approach to mitigating anode flooding in electrochemical pumps. A mixture of Nafion™ and oxidized carbon nanotubes (O-CNT) has been applied to the porous gas diffusion medium in the hydrogen pump cell. The coating renders the GDL hydrophobic with an effective contact angle of 130°. Electrochemical pump testing has shown that, with the help of the coating, the flood-recovery performance of the hydrogen pump was greatly improved. A hydrogen pump cell with an uncoated GDL was not able to recover from a flooded state, while a hydrogen pump cell with a coated GDL was able to recover its performance in about 100 s. •Anode flooding is a critical issue in low-temperature electrochemical hydrogen pumps based on proton exchange membranes.•Coating the gas diffusion medium with a mixture of Nafion and oxidized carbon nanotubes (O-CNT) renders it highly hydrophobic.•The Nafion/O-CNT coating effectively eliminated anode flooding.