Technique for characterization of the wettability properties of gas diffusion media for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Vladimir Gurau; J Adin Mann Jr

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2010.07.011

Technique for characterization of the wettability properties of gas diffusion media for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2010 Oct 15;350(2):577-80. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2010.07.011. Epub 2010 Jul 13.

Authors

Vladimir Gurau¹, J Adin Mann Jr

Affiliation

¹ Case Western Reserve University, Chemical Engineering Department, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. vladimir.gurau@case.edu

PMID: 20673909
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2010.07.011

Abstract

In this paper, a measurement technique based on the capillary penetration method is presented for use in estimating the wettability properties of gas diffusion media (GDM), a component for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The present method solves several critical issues, including the formation of an external meniscus and the evaporation of imbibed solvent, both of which greatly affect the apparent rate of solvent imbibition. Solvent evaporation is prevented by inserting a GDM sample between two thin stainless steel plates to form a tri-layer structure having non-porous evaporation covers on each side of the porous GDM sample. The presence of stainless steel plates in contact with the GDM sample was demonstrated to have a negligible impact on the evaluation of the Washburn material constant.