A More Flooding-Tolerant Oxygen Electrode in Alkaline Electrolyte

M. B. Ji , Zidong Wei (1) , S. G. Chen , Q Zhang , Y.Q. Wang , X. Q. Qi , L. Li

1 Chemistry

Owing to the inherent performance and cost advantages alkaline fuel cells (AFC) have been being a highlight in fuel cells research. However the degradation of the performance coming from the cathode due to the oxygen diffusion limit leaded by the flooding is a critical issue to overcome. The objective of this study is thus devoted to mitigate the water flooding happening in the pores of a porous oxygen electrode by using a more flooding-tolerant electrode (FTE) which contains water-proof oil, dimethyl-silicon-oil (DMS). The FTE performance was checked in two cases, the whole FTE completely immersed in 1mol L-1 KOH, and its catalyst layer side exposed to 1mol L-1 KOH but its back side to gas chamber, in order to simulate the situation of electrode flooded and electrode at normal operation condition. The results indicate that the FTE displays outstanding flooding-tolerant capability, especially in the case of a large current density, in which mass transport of gas reactant is in a dominant position.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

M. B. Ji, Zidong Wei, S. G. Chen, Q Zhang, Y.Q. Wang, et al.. A More Flooding-Tolerant Oxygen Electrode in Alkaline Electrolyte. Fuel Cells, 2010, 10 (2), pp.289. ⟨10.1002/fuce.200800150⟩. ⟨hal-00552351⟩