Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, 08826, Korea.
School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Korea.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 19;8(1):1257. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-19861-6.
Guided cracks were successfully generated in an electrode using the concentrated surface stress of a prism-patterned Nafion membrane. An electrode with guided cracks was formed by stretching the catalyst-coated Nafion membrane. The morphological features of the stretched membrane electrode assembly (MEA) were investigated with respect to variation in the prism pattern dimension (prism pitches of 20 μm and 50 μm) and applied strain (S ≈ 0.5 and 1.0). The behaviour of water on the surface of the cracked electrode was examined using environmental scanning electron microscopy. Guided cracks in the electrode layer were shown to be efficient water reservoirs and liquid water passages. The MEAs with and without guided cracks were incorporated into fuel cells, and electrochemical measurements were conducted. As expected, all MEAs with guided cracks exhibited better performance than conventional MEAs, mainly because of the improved water transport.
利用压敏型 Nafion 膜的集中表面应力，成功地在电极中产生引导裂缝。通过拉伸涂覆有催化剂的 Nafion 膜，形成具有引导裂缝的电极。研究了拉伸膜电极组件（MEA）的形态特征，考察了压敏型棱镜图案尺寸（棱镜节距为 20 μm 和 50 μm）和施加应变（S≈0.5 和 1.0）的变化。使用环境扫描电子显微镜研究了裂纹电极表面的水行为。结果表明，电极层中的引导裂缝是有效的储水器和液态水通道。将具有和不具有引导裂缝的 MEA 装入燃料电池中，并进行电化学测量。不出所料，所有具有引导裂缝的 MEA 均表现出比传统 MEA 更好的性能，主要是因为水传输得到了改善。
