| Popis: |
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) require careful control of humidity levels in the cell stack to achieve a high and stable level of performance. External humidification of the reactant gases, as in the state-of-the-art PEMFCs, increases the complexity, the weight, and the volume of the fuel cell power plant. A method for the operation of PEMFCs without external humidification (i.e., self-humidified PEMFCs) was first developed and tested by Dhar at BCS Technology. A project is underway in our Center to develop a PEMFC cell stack, which can work without external humidification and attain a performance level of a current density of 0.7 A/cm{sup 2} at a cell potential of 0.7 V, with hydrogen/air as reactants at 1 atm pressure. In this paper, the results of our efforts to design and develop a PEMFC stack requiring no external humidification will be presented. This paper focuses on determining the effects of type of electrodes, the methods of their preparation, as well as that of the membrane and electrode assembly (MEA), platinum loading and types of electrocatalyst on the performance of the PEMFC will be illustrated. |
