Hydrophobicity gradient optimization of fuel cell gas diffusion media for its application in vehicles

During Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV) operation, the liquid water in gas diffusion media (GDM) prevents the reaction gas from reaching the reaction zone and lead to output power fluctuation and reduce the lifespan of FCV. In the present research, hydrophobicity gradient settings of micro-porous layer (MPL) and gas diffusion layer (GDL) are optimized to improve the water removal ability of GDM. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is constructed for numerical simulations to analyze the fuel cell power output and the water content in the GDM with different hydrophobicity gradients. Experiments with different hydrophobicity gradients, which are specifically prepared with corresponding concentrations of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) solutions, are conducted for validation of simulation results. It is shown that the positive hydrophobicity gradient of MPL and GDL provides a better capacity for water removal and oxygen transport. The contact angles of MPL and GDL are further optimized as 147.9°-138.6° by genetic algorithm integrated with the CFD simulations.