A novel multi-porous and hydrophilic anode diffusion layer for DMFC

The effect of hydrophilic treatment within the anode diffusion layer for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has been investigated. By nitrated treatment, the surface structure and wettability of diffusion layer can be tuned. The anode micro-porous surface of carbon paper with hydrophilic adhesive after nitrated treatment presents more multi-hole structures with about 30 μm large pores and about 5 μm small pores, which were significantly larger than commercial carbon cloth and carbon paper without nitrated treatment. FTIR and EDS show that the surface of micro-porous layer has more oxygenic groups and the contact angles test also indicates that it becomes more hydrophilic after nitrated treatment. It is indicated that the anode charge transfer resistance and internal resistance dramatically decrease after nitrated treatment on the EIS test. The performance of assembled cell is also evaluated of which the power density of cell using novel diffusion layer (260 mW/cm2) is significantly higher than cell using commercial diffusion layer. The results indicate that this novel multi-porous and hydrophilic anode diffusion layer is suitable to DMFC.