Long term performance of an alkaline fuel cell with double layer electrodes


Eroglu I., Han E., Turker L.

13th World Hydrogen Energy Conference, Beijing, China, 11 - 15 June 2000, pp.738-743 identifier

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • City: Beijing
  • Country: China
  • Page Numbers: pp.738-743
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: No

Abstract

The improvement of an alkaline fuel cell (hydrogen-oxygen) performance by changing the electrode structure and manufacturing method has been achieved by employing multilayer, Teflon-bonded gas diffusion type electrodes which were prepared by the rolling method. Active carbon or carbon black was used as the support material whereas platinum as catalyst and nickel screen as the backing material. Double layer electrodes possessed the active and the diffusion layers on the backing layer. The electrode manufacturing method was ameliorated by applying different compaction loads and altering the sintering conditions. The voltage-current density characteristics of the fuel cell were measured at different temperatures (25-70 degreesC). The minimum initial cost per kilowatt electricity produced was obtained with double layer elect-odes having 0.3 mg/cm(2) platinum load. The long term performance of the fuel cell under continuous and intermittent operations was investigated with double layer. The fuel cell assembled with these electrodes delivered a current density of 129 mA/cm(2) at a cell voltage of 0.6 V.