Modeling proton exchange membrane fuel cells with fiber-based microporous layers

Microporous layers (MPLs) play a crucial role in improving water management proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Highly tunable electrospun carbon fibers offer promising candidate for MPLs to facilitate two-phase and gas transport PEMFCs. In this work, we present PEMFC model investigate the mass characteristics with made of nano-/micro-fibers. Simulations were validated by reported experimental results. It is revealed that fiber-based (fMPLs) reduce liquid saturation at cathode side due higher permeability, thus significantly reducing oxygen resistance resulting superior cell performance than conventional (cMPLs) do. Moreover, PEMFCs fMPLs outperform those cMPLs under wide range operating temperatures from 40 80 °C. addition, our parametric study results suggest high porosity (> 0.5), large fiber diameter 2 µm), contact angle 135°) can effectively boost drainage transport, thereby considerably enhancing performance. This work provides insights into behavior fMPLs, paving way design development novel high-performance