Polydopamine Modification of Carbon Fiber Veil for Water Management of Gas Diffusion Layer

초록

Gas diffusion layer (GDL) plays an important role that distributed fuel gases to the membrane electrode array (MEA) of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), and transport product water and electrons [1]. Because the membrane required maintaining the hydration level for high proton conductivity and preventing the water flooding for the adequate supply of reactants, H + and O 2- , hydrophilic and hydrophobic modification of GDL can be a good solution for the purpose [2]. Recently, studies have been reported to minimize mass transport loss through water management by achieving a patterned hydrophilic region and gradient hydrophobicity [3,4]. In this study, polydopamine (PDA) functionalization was carried out to accomplish a hydrophilicity on GDL.