Speaker
Dr
Pierre Boillat
(Paul Scherrer Institut)
Description
Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are expected to play an important role in the future energy landscape, as the used fuel (hydrogen) allows a better integration of renewable sources. Although they can be considered a technologically viable product for mobility applications (automobiles, buses), the deployment of PEFCs still requires a reduction of the cost of this technology. In combination with the reduction of material costs (e.g. lower platinum loadings), an optimization of the transport processes results in an increased power per unit of area, resulting in a lower cost for a specified power output.
In this optic, the issues related to water management in PEFCs have been extensively studied in the past decade. Neutron imaging is particularly well suited for water visualization, because of the high contrast of liquid water and the good transparency of fuel cell construction materials. Although the spatial resolution of neutron imaging is limited, recent improvement in the imaging setups [1] combined with specific anisotropic enhancements for fuel cells [2] allowed meeting the resolution required for resolving the different layers of a cell.
In this talk, a short overview of the uses of neutron imaging in fuel cell research (at PSI and other institutes) will be given. Detailed results will be presented for the latest research results obtained at PSI using the newly developed multi-cell setup [3], which allows operating and imaging of up to 6 small scale cells. These results are not limited to water visualization, but combine imaging with advanced electrochemical analysis methods such as Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and Pulsed Gas Analysis (PGA) [4, 5]. Finally, an outlook will be given about the possible future uses of neutron imaging in electrochemical energy research.
1. E. Lehmann, G. Frei, G. Kühne, and P. Boillat, Nucl. Instr. Meth. A 576, 389 (2007).
2. P. Boillat, G. Frei, E. H. Lehmann, G. G. Scherer, and A. Wokaun, Electrochem. Solid St. 13, B25 (2010).
3. P. Oberholzer, P. Boillat, R. Siegrist, A. Kaestner, E. H. Lehmann, G. G. Scherer, and A. Wokaun, Electrochem. Commun. 20, 67 (2012).
4. P. Oberholzer, P. Boillat, A. Kaestner, E. H. Lehmann, G. Scherer, T. J. Schmidt, and A. Wokaun, J. Electrochem. Soc., Submitted for publication (2013).
5. P. Boillat, P. Oberholzer, A. Kaestner, R. Siegrist, E. H. Lehmann, G. G. Scherer, and A. Wokaun, J. Electrochem. Soc. 159, F210 (2012).
Primary author
Dr
Pierre Boillat
(Paul Scherrer Institut)
Co-authors
Eberhard Lehmann
(Paul Scherrer Institut)
Pierre Oberholzer
(Paul Scherrer Institut)
