In situ-polymerized wicks for passive water management in proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Air-delivery is typically the largest parasitic loss in PEM fuel cell systems. We develop a passive water management system that minimizes this loss by enabling stable, flood-free performance in parallel channel architectures, at very low air stoichiometries. Our system employs in situ-polymerized wicks which conform to and coat cathode flow field channel walls, thereby spatially defining regions for water and air transport. We first present the fabrication procedure, which incorporates a flow field plate geometry comparable to many state-of-the-art architectures (e.g., stamped metal or injection molded flow fields). We then experimentally compare water management flow field performance versus a control case with no wick integration. At the very low air stoichiometry of 1.15, our system delivers a peak power density of 0.68 W cm⁻². This represents a 62% increase in peak power over the control case. The open channel and manifold geometries are identical for both cases, and we demonstrate near identical inlet-to-outlet cathode pressure drops at all fuel cell operating points. Our water management system therefore achieves significant performance enhancement without introducing additional parasitic losses.