In operando measurements of liquid water saturation distributions and effective diffusivities of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell gas diffusion layers

In this work, the in operando determinations of liquid water saturation and corresponding effective diffusivities were measured for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell gas diffusion layers (GDLs). Through-plane liquid water saturation profiles were obtained by combining liquid water thicknesses measured from in operando synchrotron X-ray radiography and the GDL porosity distributions from ex situ X-ray computed tomography. The effective diffusivity of these partially saturated GDLs were determined from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements combined with results from our one-dimensional fuel cell impedance model. The ratio of the effective diffusivity of the GDL to the oxygen bulk diffusivity was found to follow a power law relationship, (1−savg)2.80 which is in agreement with measurements typically reported in the literature from limiting current and three-dimensional mass transport models. The methodology presented in this paper provides a novel, in operando and complementary alternative technique for measuring the effective diffusivity of partially saturated GDLs.