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PEMFC Materials: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications
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PEMFC Materials: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2025 | Viewed by 4114

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xueliang Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Energy and Power Engineering School, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
Interests: wettability regulation; PEMFC; heat and mass transfer; electrical packaging materials; material interface engineering
Dr. Ben Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Hubei Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Automotive Components, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Interests: proton exchange membrane fuel cell; heat and water management; fuel cell optimization design; fuel cell system; fuel cell energy management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to publish original contributions in the area of PEMFCs and the corresponding related materials. PEMFC directly plays a pivotal role in promoting the development of new energy systems, which significantly affects socioeconomic development by increasing the environmental, material, energy, and labour efficiency of products.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells with high power density have been in high demand in recent years. The electrochemical performance of PEMFCs is intensively dependent on the catalyst and proton exchange membrane. Meanwhile, the heat and mass transfer in the porous electrode plays a key role in improving the power density. A gas diffusion layer with balanced water management capacity, bipolar plate with high electrical conductivity, mechanical property, and high anticorrosion performance are essential to the PEMFCs.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Proton exchange membranes;
  • Catalyst layer;
  • Gas diffusion layer;
  • Bipolar plate;
  • Hydrogen storage materials.

Dr. Xueliang Wang
Dr. Ben Chen
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • catalyst
  • gas diffusion layer
  • proton exchange membrane
  • bipolar plate
  • PEMFCs

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 6826 KiB  
Article
Numerical Investigation of the Performance of a Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzer under Various Outlet Manifold Structure Conditions
by Guobin Zhang and Zhiguo Qu
Materials 2024, 17(15), 3694; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17153694 - 26 Jul 2024
Viewed by 584
Abstract
The oxygen discharge process significantly affects the electrochemical performance of a proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE), which requires an optimal structure of the flow field implemented in the bipolar plate (BP) component. In this study, we numerically investigated the two-phase (liquid water [...] Read more.
The oxygen discharge process significantly affects the electrochemical performance of a proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE), which requires an optimal structure of the flow field implemented in the bipolar plate (BP) component. In this study, we numerically investigated the two-phase (liquid water and oxygen) flow in the PEMWE’s channel region with different outlet manifold structures utilizing the volume of fluid (VOF) model. Then, the oxygen volume fraction at the liquid/gas diffusion layer (L/GDL) surface, i.e., the interface of the channel and L/GDL, obtained by the liquid water and oxygen flow model was incorporated into a three-dimensional (3D) PEMWE model, which made it possible to predict the influence of the outlet manifold structure on the multiple transfers inside the whole electrolyzer as well as the electrochemical performance. The results indicate that the existence of oxygen in the flow field significantly decreased the electrolyzer voltage at a fixed operation current density and deteriorated the uniform distribution of the oxygen amount, current density (corresponding to the electrochemical reaction rate) and temperature in the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), indicating that the rapid oxygen removal from the flow field is preferred in the operation of the electrolyzer. Moreover, slight increases in the width of the outlet manifold were helpful in relieving the oxygen accumulation in the anode CL and, hence, improved the electrolyzer performance with more uniform distribution characteristics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue PEMFC Materials: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications)
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24 pages, 9885 KiB  
Article
Analyzing Key Factors Influencing Water Transport in Open Air-Cooled PEM Fuel Cells
by Bin He, Lin Wei, Fengping Hu, Ahmed Mohmed Dafalla, Jian Guo, Cuihua Wang and Fangming Jiang
Materials 2024, 17(13), 3267; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17133267 - 2 Jul 2024
Viewed by 686
Abstract
The current limitations of air-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cells (AC-PEMFCs) in water and heat management remain a major obstacle to their commercialization. A 90 cm2 full-size AC-PEMFC multi-physical field-coupled numerical model was constructed; isothermal and non-isothermal calculations were performed to explore [...] Read more.
The current limitations of air-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cells (AC-PEMFCs) in water and heat management remain a major obstacle to their commercialization. A 90 cm2 full-size AC-PEMFC multi-physical field-coupled numerical model was constructed; isothermal and non-isothermal calculations were performed to explore the effects of univariate and multivariate variables on cell performance, respectively. The isothermal results indicate that lower temperature is beneficial to increase the humidity of MEA, and distribution uniformity at lower stoichiometric ratios and lower temperatures is better. The correlation between current density distribution and temperature, water content, and concentration distribution shows that the performance of AC-PEMFCs is influenced by multiple factors. Notably, under high current operation, the large heat generation may lead to high local temperature and performance decline, especially in the under-channel region with drier MEA. The higher stoichiometric ratio can enhance heat dissipation, improve the uniformity of current density, and increase power density. Optimal fuel cell performance is achieved with a stoichiometric ratio of 300, balancing the mixed influence of multiple factors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue PEMFC Materials: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications)
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11 pages, 2567 KiB  
Article
A Simple Approach for Regenerating Electrolyzed Hydrogen Production Using Non-De-Ionized Water Sources
by Wei-Hsiang Chiang, Shiow-Jyu Lin and Jong-Shinn Wu
Materials 2023, 16(23), 7382; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16237382 - 27 Nov 2023
Viewed by 883
Abstract
This research focuses on using natural renewable water resources, filters, and performance recovery systems to reduce the cost of generating pure hydrogen for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs). This study uses de-ionized (DI) water, tap water, and river water from upstream as [...] Read more.
This research focuses on using natural renewable water resources, filters, and performance recovery systems to reduce the cost of generating pure hydrogen for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs). This study uses de-ionized (DI) water, tap water, and river water from upstream as the water source. Water from these sources passes through 1 μm PP filters, activated carbon, and reverse osmosis for filtering. The filtered water then undergoes hydrogen production experiments for a duration of 6000 min. Performance recovery experiments follow directly after hydrogen production experiments. The hydrogen production experiments show the following: DI water yielded a hydrogen production rate of 27.13 mL/min; unfiltered tap water produced 15.41 mL/min; unfiltered upstream river water resulted in 10.03 mL/min; filtered tap water yielded 19.24 mL/min; and filtered upstream river water generated 18.54 mL/min. Performance recovery experiments conducted by passing DI water into PEMFCs for 15 min show that the hydrogen generation rate of tap water increased to 25.73 mL/min, and the rate of hydrogen generation of upstream river water increased to 22.58 mL/min. In terms of cost-effectiveness, under the same volume of hydrogen production (approximately 600 kg/year), using only DI water costs 1.8-times more than the cost of using filtered tap water in experiments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue PEMFC Materials: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications)
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14 pages, 4948 KiB  
Article
Bismuth-Nanoparticles-Embedded Porous Carbon Derived from Seed Husks as High-Performance for Anode Energy Electrode
by Wasif ur Rehman, Umar Farooq, Muhammad Zain Yousaf and Ali Altalbe
Materials 2023, 16(20), 6628; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16206628 - 10 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1184
Abstract
In energy application technology, the anode part of the electrode is typically composed of carbon-coated materials that exhibit excellent electrochemical performance. The carbon-coated electrodes facilitate electrochemical reactions involving the fuel and the oxidant. Energy electrodes are used in stationary power plants to generate [...] Read more.
In energy application technology, the anode part of the electrode is typically composed of carbon-coated materials that exhibit excellent electrochemical performance. The carbon-coated electrodes facilitate electrochemical reactions involving the fuel and the oxidant. Energy electrodes are used in stationary power plants to generate electricity for the grid. These large-scale installations are known as distributed generation systems and contribute to grid stability and reliability. Understanding the practical applications of energy materials remains a significant hurdle in the way of commercialization. An anode electrode has one key limitation, specifically with alloy-type candidates, as they tend to exhibit rapid capacity degradation during cycling due to volume expansion. Herein, biomass-derived carbon from sunflowers (seeds husks) via pyrolysis and then bismuth nanoparticles are treated with carbon via a simple wet-chemical method. The electrode Bi@C offers several structural advantages, such as high capacity, good cycling stability, and exceptional capability at the current rate of 500 mA g−1, delivering a capacity of 731.8 mAh g−1 for 200 cycles. The biomass-derived carbon coating protects the bismuth nanoparticles and contributes to enhanced electronic conductivity. Additionally, we anticipate the use of low-cost biomass with hybrid composition has the potential to foster environment-friendly practices in the development of next-generation advanced fuel cell technology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue PEMFC Materials: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications)
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