Numerical Analysis on Influence of Double-Sided 3D-Patterned Cathode Catalyst Layers on Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Performance

Abstract

An optimized cathode catalyst layer (CCL) design can improve fuel cell performance. In this study, we tried to optimize the structure by investigating the electrochemical properties of ion and mass transport through various CCL structures with ionomer layer (IL) added using simulation numerical analysis. In the simulation, an electrochemical calculation was performed on the structure with polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and IL of CCL using the multiblock model. The simulation was conducted by changing the aspect ratio (AR) structure of the width and height of IL to five conditions so that IL is evenly distributed in the catalyst layer (CL). The result confirmed that the CL 3D IL AR 4.9 structure with the highest aspect ratio showed good performance. In addition, cell performance improved as the uniform reaction area with protons conducting through IL increased and the resistance of protons decreased. Finally, cell performance was predicted based on changes in oxygen concentration (OC), relative humidity (RH), and ionomer/carbon (I/C) ratio. This numerical analysis can show the reaction according to environmental and structural changes and design an optimized structure to improve cell performance.