Gas transfer and water vapor condensation in cathode layers of air–hydrogen fuel cells

Abstract

Model of heat and mass transfer in catalytic cathode layers of air–hydrogen fuel cells is developed on the basis of experimental data on the layers’ structure. The effect of carbon nanotubes is analyzed: their introducing into the catalytic layer increased the layer’s porosity. The derived analytical expressions allow estimating the carbon-nanotubes-content-dependence of the catalytic layer structure parameters, in particular, the gas channel characteristic dimensions and oxygen and water molecule diffusion coefficients. The simulation results showed that the adding of carbon nanotubes into the catalytic layer allows increasing the fuel cell power significantly, due to removal of limitations caused by water condensation process. The calculated results agree well with the previously obtained experimental data.