Simultaneous measurement of oxygen diffusivity and visualization of moisture distribution in gas diffusion layer with wettability distribution for improvement of polymer electrolyte fuel cell performance

The mass transfer characteristics of gas diffusion layer (GDL) are closely related to cell performance in polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). It is necessary to characterize the liquid water distribution, the microscopic conformation, and the oxygen diffusion coefficient in a GDL containing moisture. The configurations of a novel hybrid type GDL, in which two porous media with different wettabilities are arranged alternately (1),(2) and two porous media with different pore size distributions were alternately arranged (3), have been proposed with the aim of improving the oxygen diffusivity by controlling the moisture distribution in GDL porous media. However, the basic principles of hybrid type GDLs were examined in the former reports as a pilot study by using thicker media than those used in practice. It is thus necessary to elucidate the performance of the hybrid type GDLs with thinner sizes for the practical use. The present study examined a hybrid type GDL to control the liquid water behavior in the porous media. A carbon paper GDL used in practice for PEFCs with a wettability distribution due to adjacent hydrophilic and hydrophobic region was used as a test material. The measurement of oxygen diffusivity and visualization of liquid water in the GDL with wettability distribution were performed simultaneously using a galvanic battery type oxygen absorber and X-ray radiography, respectively.