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US 7,842,435 B2Granted
Fuel cell water management enhancement method
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsYang-Tse Cheng, Gayatri Vyas, Mahmoud H. Abd Elhamid
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Abstract
A method of enhancing water management capabilities of a fuel cell is disclosed. The method includes providing a fuel cell component having hydrophilic or weakly hydrophobic surfaces, increasing a hydrophobicity of at least one of said hydrophilic surfaces and assembling the fuel cell component into the fuel cell.
Claims9
A method of enhancing water management capabilities of a fuel cell, comprising:
- providing a bipolar plate having at least one metal surface that is hydrophilic or weakly hydrophobic;
- providing an ion beam;
- and
- directing said ion beam against at least a portion of said at least one metal surface to sputter atoms from said at least one metal surface and form a plurality of surface pits thereon that render said at least a portion of said at least one metal surface more hydrophobic.
1 more element
A method of enhancing water management capabilities of a fuel cell, comprising:
- providing a bipolar plate having at least one metal surface that is hydrophilic or weakly hydrophobic;
- rendering more hydrophobic at least a portion of said at least one metal surface that is hydrophilic or weakly hydrophobic by directing an ion beam against said at least a portion of said at least one metal surface to sputter atoms from said metal surface and form a plurality of surface pits thereon, said surface pits having a width and a depth at the nanometer to micrometer length scale, wherein the depth is greater than the width;
- and
- assembling said bipolar plate into said fuel cell.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.