RT Journal Article
T1 Modeling the Effect of Low Pt loading Cathode Catalyst Layer in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells. Part I: Model Formulation and Validation
A1 Sánchez Ramos, Arturo
A1 Gostick, Jeff T.
A1 García-Salaberri, Pablo A.
AB A model for the cathode catalyst layer (CL) is presented, which is validated with previous experimental data in terms of both performance and oxygen transport resistance. The model includes a 1D macroscopic description of proton, electron and oxygen transport across the CL thickness, which is locally coupled to a 1D microscopic model that describes oxygen transport toward Pt sites. Oxygen transport from the channel to the CL and ionic transport across the membrane are incorporated through integral boundary conditions. The model is complemented with data of effective transport and electrochemical properties extracted from multiple experimental works. The results show that the contribution of the thin ionomer film and Pt/ionomer interface increases with the inverse of the roughness factor. Whereas the contribution of the water film and the water/ionomer interface increases with the ratio between the geometric area and the surface area of active ionomer. Moreover, it is found that CLs diluted with bare carbon provide lower performance than non-diluted samples due to their lower electrochemical surface area and larger local oxygen transport resistance. Optimized design of non-diluted samples with a good distribution of the overall oxygen flux among Pt sites is critical to reduce mass transport losses at low Pt loading.
PB IOP Science
SN 0013-4651
YR 2021
FD 2021-12-30
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/35216
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/35216
LA eng
NO This work was supported by the projects PID2019-106740RB-I00 and EIN2020-112247 (Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación) and the project PEM4ENERGY-CM-UC3M funded by the call "Programa de apoyo a la realización de proyectos interdisciplinares de I + D para jóvenes investigadores de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2019–2020" under the frame of the "Convenio Plurianual Comunidad de Madrid-Universidad Carlos III de Madrid".
DS e-Archivo
RD 27 jul. 2024