3D-printed porous media combined with biomimetic distributor for small-scale polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

This study presents a novel biomimetic flow-field concept that integrates a triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) porous architecture with a hierarchical leaf-vein-inspired distribution zone, fabricated through 3D printing. By mimicking natural transport systems, the proposed design enhances oxygen delivery and water removal in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The results showed that I-FF and G-FF significantly improved mass transport and water management compared to conventional CPFF. The integrated design I-FF-LDZ achieves up to 32% improvement in power density at 1.85 A/〖cm〗^2@0.4 V and delays the onset of mass transport losses. The study also reveals that optimizing the volume fraction V_f significantly affects gas penetration, with lower V_f (30%) improving performance in the mass-limited region. These findings underscore the promise of nature-inspired, 3D-printed flow-field architectures in overcoming key transport limitations and advancing the scalability of next-generation PEMFC systems.