1 research outputs found
Mechanical Behavior of Free-Standing Fuel Cell Electrodes on Water Surface
Fundamental understanding of the
mechanical behavior of polymer
electrolyte fuel cell electrodes as free-standing materials is essential
to develop mechanically robust fuel cells. However, this has been
a significant challenge due to critical difficulties, such as separating
the pristine electrode from the substrate without damage and precisely
measuring the mechanical properties of the very fragile and thin electrodes.
We report the mechanical behavior of free-standing fuel cell electrodes
on the water surface through adopting an innovative ice-assisted separation
method to separate the electrode from decal transfer film. It is found
that doubling the ionomer content in electrodes increases not only
the tensile stress at the break and the Young’s modulus (<i>E</i>) of the electrodes by approximately 2.1–3.5 and
1.7–2.4 times, respectively, but also the elongation at the
break by approximately 1.5–1.7 times, which indicates that
stronger, stiffer, and tougher electrodes are attained with increasing
ionomer content, which have been of significant interest in materials
research fields. The scaling law relationship between Young’s
modulus and density (ρ) has been unveiled as <i>E</i> ∼ ρ<sup>1.6</sup>, and it is compared with other materials.
These findings can be used to develop mechanically robust electrodes
for fuel cell applications