Abstract
Traditional macroscopic structural design for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) has gradually become insufficient to meet the demands for improving fuel cell performance. Femtosecond laser processing is a promising solution capable of achieving precise control over the material structure and improving the quality of the processed material. In this study, femtosecond laser processing technology is used to modify the surface microstructure of gas diffusion layers (GDL) in PEMFC, aiming to enhance the characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow and electrochemical performance. In this paper, a novel coupled model based on the coupling of the two-temperature equation, phase transition and thermal stress is proposed. Comparison of the effects of different laser processing parameters on the surface morphology and thermal effects of carbon fibre materials. The impact of repetition rate on the heat-affected zone and pit quality is most significant. When rate increases from 100 kHz to 400 kHz, the heat-affected zone decreases from 42.8% to 29.3%. This process model can provide guidance and prediction for optimizing the laser processing parameters and improving the performance of the microporous structures.