It is therefore the objective of the present invention to provide a porous transport layer that shows an increase in the system efficiency as well as superior durability eliminating membrane and catalyst layer deformation and cost reduction for bipolar plate machining.This objective is achieved according to the present invention by a porous transport layer (2) based on a plurality of sintered porous layers (4, 8, 10) having a permeability for gaseous and liquid substances in an electrochemical cell; said multilayer porous transport layer (2) being suited to be assembled between a bipolar plate and a catalyst layer of the electrochemical cell, comprising:a) at least a first porous layer (8, 10) and a second porous layer (4) comprising non-defined shaped particles of a conductive material, wherein the mean particle size decreases from layer to layer in a direction seen from the bipolar plate towards the catalyst layer; andb) the first porous layer (8, 10) and the second layer (4) are made from sintered non-defined shaped particles of the conductive material, wherein the first porous layer (8, 10) having a contact surface enabled to be oriented towards the catalyst layer has a smaller mean particle size than the second porous layer (4) having a contact surface enabled to be oriented towards the bipolar plate.The use of multilayer designed porous transport structures, comprised of a plurality of porous layers in optional combination with integrated flow field structures provides simultaneously economic and technical improvement by the optimization of a single component design.
展开▼
