Mitigating mass transport limitations in ultra-thin electrodes of PEFCs through new backing layer structures.

The main aim of this work is to study the effect of structure of fibre-density modulated GDLs on water removal from the flow fields of PEM fuel cells. Preliminary studies have suggested that heterogeneity in the backing layer affects the surface properties of these materials and improves their ability to remove water content in the cell.

Further experiments will be conducted to elucidate the properties and morphology of GDLs with bands of differing fibre density (i.e. areas of high and low fibre content) and explain how these structural features can influence the water distribution, particularly in the anode part of a cell. The experiments will focus on the characterisation of modulated samples by conducting transport property (i.e. water flux) and structural property measurements (imaging and microscopy) coupled with fuel cell performance tests.