Fuel cell water management enhancement method
View Patent ↗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.
1. 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.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of said plurality of surface pits has a plurality of widths and depths at the nanometer to micrometer length scale.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
providing a shadowing mask having a plurality of mask openings over said at least one surface to define a size and pattern of said at least a portion of said at least one surface that said ion beam is directed against through said plurality of mask openings.
4. 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.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:
providing a shadowing mask having a plurality of mask openings over said at least one metal surface that is hydrophilic or weakly hydrophobic to define a size and pattern of said at least a portion of said at least one metal surface; and
directing said ion beam against said at least a portion of said at least one metal surface that is hydrophilic or weakly hydrophobic through said plurality of mask openings.
6. The method of claim 4 wherein the fuel cell is a hydrogen fuel cell.
7. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of assembling includes assembling said bipolar plate into a cathode side of said fuel cell such that said bipolar plate comes into contact with fuel cell reaction product during operation of the fuel cell.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the fuel cell reaction product includes water and the step of rendering more hydrophobic increases the hydrophobicity of said at least a portion of said at least one metal surface sufficiently to promote transport of the water out of the fuel cell.
9. The method of claim 3 wherein each of said plurality of mask openings defines a size of each of the plurality of surface pits.