Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Toghiani, Hossein

Committee Member

Schulz, Kirk H.

Committee Member

Wu, Junxiao

Committee Member

Toghiani, Rebecca K.

Date of Degree

8-7-2004

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Chemical Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering

Abstract

In this work, a steady-state, one-dimensional model was developed for the cathode side of the PEM fuel cell. The model results compared well with available literature results. The effects of operating temperature, cathode gas pressure, cathode gas porosity, and membrane thickness were studied. Carbon materials used for the gas diffusion layer (GDL) were characterized. The materials were: untreated and Teflon-treated carbon paper and untreated and Teflon-treated carbon cloth. Physisorption data were analyzed using the BET and the BJH methods to determine surface area and pore size distribution. Capillary flow porometry measurements provided the bubble point, mean flow, and smallest pore diameters and pore size distribution. Gas permeability measurements were performed. Mercury/non-mercury intrusion porosimetry measurements were performed to obtain pore size distribution and cumulative pore volume. The microstructure structure of the materials was examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy. The elemental composition of the samples was measured using Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20333

Comments

characterization||modeling||PEM fuel cell||GDL||porosimetry||porometry

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