Microscale measurements of oxygen concentration across the thickness of diffusion media in operating polymer electrolyte fuel cells

• Oxygen concentration measurements in polymer electrolyte fuel cell diffusion media.
• Measured in pores during fuel cell operation using 25 μm microsensor probe.
• Spatial resolution of 20 μm through the thickness of diffusion media.
• Spatially-correlated to structure imaged by micro X-ray computed tomography.
• Local O2 transport resistance and liquid water onset locations in diffusion media.

Although polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) offer promise as efficient, low emission power sources, the large amount of platinum catalyst used for the cathode's oxygen reduction (ORR) results in high costs. One approach to using less Pt is to increase the oxygen concentration at the catalyst by reducing the oxygen transport resistances. An important resistance is that of the diffusion media (DM). The DM are highly heterogeneous porous carbon fiber substrates with a graded composition of additives across their thickness. In this work we use an oxygen microsensor with a micro-positioning system to measure the oxygen concentration and presence of liquid water in the pores at discrete points across the thickness of a commercial carbon felt DM in operating PEFCs. Under conditions with no liquid water, the DM accounts for 60% of the oxygen depletion, with 60–70% of that depletion being due to the thin microporous layer (MPL) on the catalyst layer (CL) side. Using concentration gradient data, we quantify the non-uniform local transport resistance across the DM and relate it to high resolution 3D X-ray computed tomography of the same DM.

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