Preparation, characterization and comparative study of gas diffusion layer for pem fuel cell

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that directly convert chemical energy to electrical energy. Among fuel cells PEMFC is unique and only kind of low temperature fuel cell that uses solid polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM - Nafion®) which operates at relatively low temperature (60-120°C). In PEMFC stack the gas diffusion media is sandwiched between the bipolar plate and the catalyst layer to form the gas diffusion layer (GDL). In the present study GDL macroporous layer were prepared using coir pith carbon fibers along with PVA as binder and Pani as co-binder. A comparative analysis of electrical resistivity and porosity of coir pith carbon fibers based GDL macroporous layer with commercially available(SIGRACET 10, 24/25,34/35& TORAY GDL) GDL, the effect of binder, co-binder and thickness of GDL were studied.