Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
realized if applied for higher energy density power sources because the issue
related to mass transfer of reactants and products is expected to be a matter of
serious concern under rigorous reaction conditions in the electrodes which origi-
nate under increased power demanding situations.
In this direction in our recent work [
174
], we have demonstrated the advantages
of micropatterning of an electrode to address the water management problem in
conventional PEM fuel cell. The MEA with the micropatterned electrode has
shown enhanced power density at a higher temperature as well as at a higher
relative humidity when compared to a flat electrode. Although the maximum
power density obtained at 60 C with a flat electrode is a little higher than that
using micropatterned electrode, better consistency in cell performance is observed
in the case of micropatterned electrodes. More interestingly, this approach offers a
strategy to eliminate the current use of bipolar plates to stack the MEAs and,
thereby, making PEMFC systems much simpler to design and cheaper to fabricate.
15 Conclusions and Future Perspectives
From the above critical review, it is clear that several low-cost materials need to be
developed further for making polymer fuel cells affordable, irrespective of the
nature of the application. Of course, the requirements of these materials might vary
for transportation or stationary applications but the emerging importance of low-
cost nanotechnology cannot be neglected. It is worth to mention here that the
current research attempts are intensively focused on some of the following cutting
edge areas, For example
• Non-Pt-based (Fe, Co and C, N enriched) electrocatalysts for cathodes
• Pt monolayer-coated transition metal alloy catalysts for cathodes
• Metal-free conducting polymers and nitrogen-doped graphene catalysts
• Low-cost polymer composite membranes for low and high temperatures
• Carbon-coated lightweight polymer foam-based bipolar plates
• Micropatternized Al foil-based bipolar plates
and any further improvements will definitely pave a way to eliminate the
existing bottlenecks or may provide economically viable, environmentally benign
alternate technologies to realize fuel cell-based applications in our day-to-day life.
Acknowledgments The authors appreciate the financial support from Government of India,
through CSIR NMITLI, and NWP0022 and from DST as research fellowships. The authors also
thank all NMITLI team members from CSIR-NCL, CSIR-NPL and CSIR-CECRI (Chennai Unit)
for their valuable contributions. We thank Dr. Sivaram for his constant support and useful
discussions.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search