A lung-inspired printed circuit board polymer electrolyte fuel cell
A lung-inspired printed circuit board polymer electrolyte fuel cell
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DOI：
10.1016/j.enconman.2019.112198
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发表时间：
2019-12-15
影响因子：
10.4
通讯作者：
Coppens, M. -O.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bethapudi, V. S.;Hack, J.;Coppens, M. -O.
受空气在肺内流动机制的启发，分形阴极流场可以为聚合物电解质燃料电池(PEFC)电极提供均匀、可伸缩和均匀分布的反应物。然而，以前展示的复杂的3D流场面临着制造挑战，例如需要选择性激光烧结，这是一种放大成本较高的添加制造方法。在这里，介绍了一种以肺部为灵感的阴极流场，并使用低成本、轻质的印刷电路板(PCB)制造。使用X射线计算机层析成像(X-ray CT)表征了产生流动通道的分形层的各个印刷电路板层之间的一致性和对准。该分形场的性能优于传统的单蛇形流场，尤其适用于相对湿度较低的空气环境。由于反应物的均匀分布，受肺启发的设计比单蛇形设计更稳定地运行。
Fractal cathode flow-fields, inspired by the flow mechanism of air inside lungs, can provide homogeneous, scalable and uniform distribution of reactants to polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) electrodes. However, the complex 3D flow-fields demonstrated previously face manufacturing challenges, such as requiring selective laser sintering, an additive manufacturing method that is expensive to scale up. Here, a lung-inspired cathode flow-field is introduced and fabricated using low-cost, lightweight printed circuit boards (PCB). The uniformity and alignment between individual PCB layers producing the fractal hierarchy of flow channels have been characterised using X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT). The performance of the fractal flow-field exceeds that of conventional single-serpentine flow-fields and is particularly beneficial when operating on air with a low relative humidity. The lung-inspired design is shown to lead to a more stable operation than the single-serpentine design, as a result of uniform distribution of reactants.