Influence of Hydrophilic Treatment of Gas Diffusion Layer on Cell Performance of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell with Porous Flow Fields Made of Sintered Metal Powder

Abstract

This current paper describes the investigation on the influence of the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) treatment of gas diffusion layer (GDL) on cell performance of DMFC with the sintered metal powder porous flow fields. The experimental results show that the power output for the anode GDL with PVDF treatment is higher than that for the anode GDL with PTFE treatment due to the decrease in cell and reaction resistances. The amount of methanol crossover for the anode GDL with PVDF treatment is greater than that for the anode GDL with PTFE treatment.