Model to Investigate Interfacial Morphology Effects on Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Performance

The purpose of this work is to investigate the impact of the interfacial contact morphology between the catalyst layer (CL) and micro porous layer (MPL) on the polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) performance. A single-phase anisotropic mathematical model has been developed to evaluate the role of interfacial morphology on ohmic, thermal and gas-phase transport. The novel feature of the model is inclusion of directly measured surface morphological information of the cathode catalyst and the micro porous layers. The preliminary results indicate that thermal disruption due interface morphology has low absolute impact in comparison to ohmic disruption. Ultimately, this model will be used as a tool to understand and minimize the PEFC performance loss, and to develop guidelines for optimal CL and MPL surfaces.