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A technical review on gas diffusion, mechanism and medium of PEM fuel cell

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Abstract

The operation of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM)-based fuel cells involves numerous physicochemical processes and components actively governing its function and, among them, gas transport phenomena and gas diffusion layer (GDL) are noteworthy, and the present paper provides a comprehensive assessment on gas diffusion mechanism, geometry of GDL components and related modelling studies involved in GDL fabrication. The impact of GDL on diffusion of reactants, water management and the transport of ions has also been systematically dealt.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the IBTec, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) grant by the Doctoral Fellowship and the authors would like to acknowledge their support. The authors are also grateful to Ms. Jo Stone for an effective proofreading.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Arunkumar Jayakumar, Maximiano Ramos, John Robertson & Ahmed Al-Jumaily

  2. Technische Universität München - Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise, 1 CREATE Way, Singapore, 138602, Singapore

    Sundar Pethaiah Sethu

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  1. Arunkumar Jayakumar
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  2. Sundar Pethaiah Sethu
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Correspondence to Arunkumar Jayakumar.

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Jayakumar, A., Sethu, S.P., Ramos, M. et al. A technical review on gas diffusion, mechanism and medium of PEM fuel cell. Ionics 21, 1–18 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-014-1322-x

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