Abstract
The PEFC is a strong candidate for use as an alternative power source in future vehicle and power conditioning application. On operating PEFC, water management inside the cell is a large issue. However, the internal mechanism of water production has been less understood For understanding the mechanism, we need to figure out an internal temperature distriibution because the water production and its behavior are strongly influenced by the variation of the temperature. Up to now, there have only been measurements of in-plane direction temperature distribution. However, according to a mechanism of overvoltage increment by poor water management, information of temperature distribution across the cell is more required to analyze the water behavior. In this study, we measured temperature distribution across a cell by nipping very thin thermocouples in each layer of the cell, and figured out that the cathode catalyst layer had a maximum temperature under a steady state condition. We also figured out that this layer had a minimum when load current stopped.
