An Experimental Setup for Measuring Mass Transport in Micro-Capillaries and Fuel Cell Electrodes

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Due to mass transport limitations, it is estimated that only 10-20% of the platinum in polymer electrolyte fuel cell electrodes is currently utilized. Lowering the amount of platinum in the electrodes would substantially reduce the cost of fuel cells, one of the last remaining hurdles to successful fuel cell commercialization. Mass transport in fuel cell electrodes, and porous media, is however poorly understood. In the past decade, at least three novel mathematical models for analyzing mass transport have been proposed such as the binary friction model. Further, equations used to link fuel cell electrode properties (e.g., porosity and pore size distribution) to its effective diffusivity (i.e., a constant that characterizes mass transport), such as Bruggeman equation, have been shown to over predict effective diffusivity by more than a factor of four. Therefore, in order to accurately characterize the electrode's mass transport properties, experimental measurements are still required. However, an experimental setup to measure mass transport in electrodes and porous materials is not currently available at the University of Alberta.