Regulating Water Transport Paths on Porous Transport Layer by Hydrophilic Patterning for Highly Efficient Unitized Regenerative Fuel Cells

Abstract

Highlights Novel amphiphilic patterned titanium porous transport layers (PTLs) significantly enhance the round-trip efficiency of unitized regenerative fuel cells (URFCs), achieving an impressive round-trip efficiency of 25.7% at a current density of 2 A cm-2. The serpentine configuration of the patterned PTL excels in both fuel cell (FC) and water electrolyzer modes, resulting in a sevenfold increase in current density in FC mode compared to URFCs using hydrophilic pristine Ti PTLs.

Keywords

• URFE
• Fuel cell
• Water electrolysis
• Surface modification
• Hydrophilic-patterned Ti PTL