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US 9,431,665 B2Granted
Selectively coated bipolar plates for water management and freeze start in PEM fuel cells
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsGayatri Vyas Dadheech, Mahmoud H. Abd Elhamid
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A flow field plate for fuel cell applications includes an electrically conductive plate having a first surface defining a plurality of channels. An active area section and an inactive area section characterize the flow field channels. A hydrophobic layer is disposed over at least a portion of the inactive area section while a hydrophilic layer is disposed over at least a portion of the active area section.
Claims17
A flow field plate for fuel cell applications, the flow field plate comprising:
- an electrically conductive plate having a first surface defining a plurality of channels, each channel having an active area section and a peripheral section, the active area section being configured to be placed at an interior section of a fuel cell at which electrochemical reactions are occurring characterized by presence of catalyst layers and the peripheral section being configured to be placed peripheral to active area section in a fuel cell characterized by absence of catalyst layers;
- a hydrophilic layer disposed only over a portion of the active area section;
- and
- a hydrophobic layer disposed only over a portion of the peripheral section.
1 more element
A flow field plate for fuel cell applications, the flow field plate comprising:
- an electrically conductive plate having a first surface defining a plurality of channels, each channel having an active area region and a peripheral inactive area region;
- the active area region being configured to be placed at an interior section of a fuel cell at which electrochemical reactions are occurring characterized by presence of catalyst layers and the peripheral inactive area region being configured to be placed peripheral to active area region in a fuel cell characterized by absence of catalyst layers;
- and
- a hydrophobic layer disposed only over a portion of the peripheral inactive area region.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.