TY - JOUR
T1 - A discrete particle packing model for the formation of a catalyst layer in polymer electrolyte fuel cells
AU - So, Magnus
AU - Park, Kayoung
AU - Ohnishi, Tomohiro
AU - Ono, Masumi
AU - Tsuge, Yoshifumi
AU - Inoue, Gen
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT) in the post-K computer development plan. It is under priority issue 6: “Accelerated development of innovative clean energy systems”; and sub-issue B: “Advancement of fuel cell design process with the high performance computing of gas-liquid two-phase flow and electrodes”.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC
PY - 2019/12/6
Y1 - 2019/12/6
N2 - We developed a reconstruction simulation model for a catalyst layer of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell to elucidate the effect of the size and shape of the catalyst agglomerates on the cell performance. The geometry of the catalyst layer was obtained by simulating the packing of carbon black agglomerates in ink modeled as multisphere objects by the discrete element method. Electrochemical reaction and mass transfer were modeled based on the resulting three-dimensional geometry of the catalyst. Both the size and shape of the agglomerate significantly influence the catalyst structure and performance. Branched agglomerates lead to higher porosity, larger pore sizes, and better cell performance. For each agglomerate shape, there is an optimum size at which the performance is the maximum, because of the optimum trade-off relationship between the oxygen diffusion and proton conduction. Understanding the mechanism of the catalyst formation can aid the design of catalysts to improve their performance.
AB - We developed a reconstruction simulation model for a catalyst layer of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell to elucidate the effect of the size and shape of the catalyst agglomerates on the cell performance. The geometry of the catalyst layer was obtained by simulating the packing of carbon black agglomerates in ink modeled as multisphere objects by the discrete element method. Electrochemical reaction and mass transfer were modeled based on the resulting three-dimensional geometry of the catalyst. Both the size and shape of the agglomerate significantly influence the catalyst structure and performance. Branched agglomerates lead to higher porosity, larger pore sizes, and better cell performance. For each agglomerate shape, there is an optimum size at which the performance is the maximum, because of the optimum trade-off relationship between the oxygen diffusion and proton conduction. Understanding the mechanism of the catalyst formation can aid the design of catalysts to improve their performance.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.10.005
DO - 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.10.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075427883
VL - 44
SP - 32170
EP - 32183
JO - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
JF - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
SN - 0360-3199
IS - 60
ER -