Investigation of Gas Diffusion Layers for Flexible Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

In this study, we report the investigation of the gas diffusion layers (GDLs) in flexible polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and measure the cell assembly pressure via force sensitive resistor (FSR). We confirmed the performance of the flexible PEMFCs using carbon cloth (pristine CC), carbon paper (CP), and carbon cloth with MPL (MPL CC) as GDLs. The performance of flexible PEMFCs in the flat position with pristine CC, CP, and MPL CC are 54.2, 24.2, and 22.8 mW/cm2, respectively. On the other hand, that of flexible PEMFCs in the bent position is 94.5, 52.9, and 46.0 mW/cm2, respectively. The cell assembly pressure depending on GDLs, is confirmed via FSR measurements. The cell assembly pressure based on curvatures is higher in the order of CP, MPL CC, and pristine CC. We investigated the application of GDLs because optimization is complicated based on the bending characteristics in flexible PEMFCs. This study can be helpful for the selection of GDLs in flexible PEMFCs.