Treatment and characterization of gas diffusion layers by sucrose carbonization for PEMFC applications

In this article, a new treatment of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) was proposed by sucrose carbonization in order to obtain high hydrophobicity with low PTFE loading. Carbon was coated both on the cross position and stem of carbon fiber, resulting in the enhancement of carbon paper roughness, which improved the hydrophobicity of carbon paper with low PTFE loading. The water contact angle of carbonized carbon paper with 10 wt.% PTFE loading was measured as 137 ± 1° at 25 °C, which was higher than 125 ± 1° for non-carbonized carbon paper with the same PTFE loading. The performances of MEAs prepared by carbonized carbon paper were higher than those of MEAs prepared by non-carbonized carbon paper. The MEA prepared by carbonized carbon paper with 10 wt.% PTFE loading showed excellent performance compared to the other MEAs.