Islam Muhammad Naoshad, Shrivastava Udit, Atwa Marwa, Li Xiaoan, Birss Viola, Karan Kunal
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
Department of Chemistry, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Sep 2;12(35):39215-39226. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c10755. Epub 2020 Aug 18.
We introduce a novel self-standing, nanoporous carbon scaffold (NCS, 25 μm thick), with an ordered inverse opal pore structure (∼85 nm pore) as a microporous layer (MPL) in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. Unlike previous studies, through chemical functionalization of the pore surfaces, the wettability of the MPL is controllably modified without altering the pore structure. environmental scanning electron microscopy experiments revealed water sorption in the hydrophilic NCS under moderate relative humidity (RH) conditions but not in the hydrophobic NCS, wherein water condensation on the surface was noted only at high RH. The influence of structure and wettability of different MPLs on cell performance was gleaned from steady-state cell polarization behavior. For cells operated under dry conditions (≤80% RH), the limiting current for cells with a hydrophilic NCS MPL was the highest while that for cells with a hydrophobic NCS MPL was the lowest regardless of the level of water saturation (RH).
我们介绍了一种新型的自立式纳米多孔碳支架（NCS，厚度为25μm），其具有有序的反蛋白石孔结构（孔径约85nm），用作聚合物电解质膜燃料电池中的微孔层（MPL）。与先前的研究不同，通过对孔表面进行化学功能化，在不改变孔结构的情况下可控制地改变MPL的润湿性。环境扫描电子显微镜实验表明，在中等相对湿度（RH）条件下，亲水性NCS中存在水吸附，而在疏水性NCS中则不存在，其中仅在高RH下才注意到表面上的水凝结。从稳态电池极化行为中了解到不同MPL的结构和润湿性对电池性能的影响。对于在干燥条件（≤80%RH）下运行的电池，无论水饱和度（RH）水平如何，具有亲水性NCS MPL的电池的极限电流最高，而具有疏水性NCS MPL的电池的极限电流最低。
