Abstract
An innovative external reference electrode technique has been applied to the cathode of an operating DMFC in order to identify variations in electrode potential across the active area of the cell. The evolution of cathode potential at two different locations in the cell was monitored during operation, with the primary focus on studying the potential dynamics during the temporary degradation recovery procedure, the so-called refresh cycle. The results highlight for the first time a non-uniform local recovery of temporary degradation at the cathode during refresh cycles, associated with varying rates of platinum oxide reduction across the cell, which could lead to current density redistribution and contribute to an uneven degradation of the components. The technique shows great promise for the improvement of long term DMFC performance via optimisation of refresh cycle protocols.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 9797-9802 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | International Journal of Hydrogen Energy |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 20 |
| Early online date | 27 Apr 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 17 May 2018 |
Funding
This work has been performed in the frame of the FCH JU FP7 projects Second Act (EC Grant Agreement n°621216) and the FCH-JU FP7 project H2FC European Research Infrastructure (EC Grant Agreement n°284522) under user access project 2071. The authors would like to thank Vania Cocca for the helpful support in the experimental measurements.
Keywords
- cathode potential
- direct methanol fuel cell
- platinum oxides
- reference electrode
- temporary degradation