Experimental study of temperature distribution effect on proton exchange membrane fuel cell using multi-pass serpentine channels

•Fuel cell performance is highly influenced by reactant flow filed design.•Power density in 3-pass design is 13.41% and 22.36% higher than 1 and 6-pass design.•Membrane life span is reduced due to hot spots formation.•Temperature distribution evaluated in the cell is mapped using the colour matrix.•3-pass serpentine design has higher temperature uniformity.