Effect of electrode variable contact angle on the performance and transport characteristics of passive direct methanol fuel cells

摘要: Abstract In this study, a multiphase passive direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) model is developed to study the effect of micro porous layer (MPL) insertion, and variable contact angle effects due different fabrication processes diffusion (DL) MPL are also investigated in details. It found that with increasing along flow direction anode DL (ADL), liquid always needs from more hydrophilic region hydrophobic region, leading less crossover. A higher ADL generally leads crossover, although it increases resistance at inlet, mass transport DL/MPL interface reduced, capillary driven enhanced inside DL. However, since often very thin compared GDL, could act as transfer barrier mainly because differences across MPL/DL MPL/CL interfaces, which dominating factor determining function. The results shed light on development novel electrode based processes.