TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of through-plane distribution of polytetrafluoroethylene in carbon paper on in-plane gas permeability
AU - Ito, Hiroshi
AU - Abe, Katsuya
AU - Ishida, Masayoshi
AU - Nakano, Akihiro
AU - Maeda, Tetsuhiko
AU - Munakata, Tetsuo
AU - Nakajima, Hironori
AU - Kitahara, Tatsumi
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan under the Japan-U.S. Cooperation Project for Research and Standardization of Clean Energy Technologies and Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) under the Strategic Japanese–Chinese Joint Research Program for Highly-efficient Energy Utilization. The authors also thank Dr. Satoshi Someya (AIST) for helpful discussion on imaging and thank Mr. Akira Takatuski (AIST) for his SEM–EDS expertise.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - In-plane permeability of gas diffusion backing (GDB) of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) was investigated experimentally. Toray-paper and SGL-paper were selected as GDB test samples. Several Toray-papers were treated in-house with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) using the immersion technique, dried either under atmospheric or vacuum pressure, and then sintered. The dependence of PTFE distribution in the through-plane direction on the PTFE drying conditions was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-based energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) imaging. The EDS image maps revealed that the PTFE distribution strongly depended on the drying condition, and PTFE drying under vacuum pressure yielded a relatively uniform PTFE distribution. The measured in-plane permeability suggests that the homogeneous distribution of PTFE achieved by the vacuum drying produces a porosity-leveling effect. In addition, the relationship between the in-plane permeability and porosity of the Toray-paper samples followed the Kozeny-Carman relation, whereas due to non-fibrous solids such as binder, that of the SGL-paper samples did not.
AB - In-plane permeability of gas diffusion backing (GDB) of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) was investigated experimentally. Toray-paper and SGL-paper were selected as GDB test samples. Several Toray-papers were treated in-house with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) using the immersion technique, dried either under atmospheric or vacuum pressure, and then sintered. The dependence of PTFE distribution in the through-plane direction on the PTFE drying conditions was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-based energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) imaging. The EDS image maps revealed that the PTFE distribution strongly depended on the drying condition, and PTFE drying under vacuum pressure yielded a relatively uniform PTFE distribution. The measured in-plane permeability suggests that the homogeneous distribution of PTFE achieved by the vacuum drying produces a porosity-leveling effect. In addition, the relationship between the in-plane permeability and porosity of the Toray-paper samples followed the Kozeny-Carman relation, whereas due to non-fibrous solids such as binder, that of the SGL-paper samples did not.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.10.009
DO - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.10.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84886780827
SN - 0378-7753
VL - 248
SP - 822
EP - 830
JO - Journal of Power Sources
JF - Journal of Power Sources
ER -
