Heat and mass transfer at the interface between cathode catalyst layer and gas diffusion layer of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Mass transfer at the interface between cathode catalyst layer and gas diffusion layer can directly reflect the reactant content entering into catalyst layer for the electrochemical reaction, and also reflect the production content discharged. Heat transfer inside fuel cell has a strong interaction with the electrochemical reaction, so temperature distribution affects the reaction rate. Investigation on the heat and mass transfer at the interface is helpful to understand the influence of various parameters on cell performance. In this work, the effect of four different parameters on heat and mass transfer at the interface are studied using a 3D agglomerate model. The results indicate that more platinum or carbon loading in cathode catalyst layer can enhance heat and mass transfer inside the cell, but more loading is not good for cell durability. The influence law of cathode gas diffusion layer porosity or ionomer content in cathode catalyst layer on overall cell performance is various under different voltages. Larger porosity is not beneficial to the uniformity of temperature inside the cell. More ionomer content is not conducive to heat dissipation. The findings contribute to direct the designs and fabrications of membrane electrode assembly and flow channel structure under the practical utilization situation.