Key Materials for Fuel Cell Stacks
Key Materials for Fuel Cell Stacks – Fuel Cell Catalyst Coatings – Cheersonic
Hydrogen energy is an important energy situation in the future. Its energy density is 3 times that of oil and 4.5 times that of coal. Its status in the future is expected to be comparable to that of fossil resources.
A hydrogen fuel cell is a hydrogen energy conversion device that uses hydrogen as a fuel to directly convert the chemical energy in the fuel into electrical energy through an electrochemical reaction. From the perspective of the technical structure of the vehicle, the fuel cell can be divided into four levels, the outermost is the fuel cell and the whole vehicle, the next layer is the fuel cell power system, the next layer is the fuel cell system, and the innermost one is the fuel cell power system. The layer is the fuel cell stack.
Fuel cell stack
The fuel cell stack is the “heart” of the hydrogen energy vehicle. The fuel cell stack is mainly composed of catalysts, proton exchange membranes, gas diffusion layers, bipolar plates, and other structural parts such as seals, end plates and collector plates. The membrane electrode and the bipolar plates on both sides constitute the basic unit of the fuel cell.
Proton exchange membrane
A proton exchange membrane, also known as a proton membrane or a hydrogen ion exchange membrane, is an ion-selectively permeable membrane that functions in batteries to provide channels for proton migration and transport, separate gaseous reactants, and block electrolytes.
From the perspective of membrane structure, PEM can be roughly divided into three categories: sulfonated polymer membranes, composite membranes, and inorganic acid-doped membranes. The PEM materials currently studied are mainly sulfonated polymer electrolytes, which can be divided into perfluorosulfonic acid proton exchange membranes, partially fluorinated proton exchange membranes, and non-fluorine proton exchange membranes according to the fluorine content of the polymers.
Catalyst
Although redox reactions in fuel cells are thermodynamically spontaneous, there is usually an energy barrier of activation energy between reactants and products, resulting in slow kinetics. Fuel cell catalysts play a role in reducing the activation energy of electrode reactions and increasing the reaction rate, and are key materials and operational guarantees for fuel cells.
Gas diffusion layer
The processes that occur on the gas diffusion layer include: heat transfer process, gaseous transport process, two-phase flow process, electron transport process, surface droplet dynamics process, etc. Diffusion, supporting catalysts, conducting current, excluding the reaction to produce water, etc.
Membrane electrode
Membrane electrode is a place for electrochemical reaction, a medium for transferring electrons and protons, providing channels for the in and out of reaction gas, exhaust gas and liquid water, involving three-phase interface reactions and complex mass and heat transfer processes. Determines fuel cell performance, life and cost. The membrane electrode is a five-in-one structure composed of an anode/cathode gas diffusion layer, an anode/cathode catalyst, and a proton exchange membrane.
Our company’s ultrasonic spraying equipment can be sprayed on a variety of different metal alloys, including the preparation of platinum, nickel, iridium and ruthenium-based fuel cell catalyst coatings, as well as PEMs, GDLs, DMFCs (direct methanol fuel cells) and SOFCs (solid Oxide fuel cell) manufacturing. The battery manufactured by this technology has the characteristics of high battery load and high battery efficiency.
