Diagnosis of Coating Failure in Fuel Cell Components

氢燃料电池是一种很有前途的技术，它可以用替代燃料提供清洁电力。长期以来，它们一直被誉为提供更可持续能源的一种手段，然而，它们一直受到高成本和制造复杂性的阻碍。在Bramble能源公司，我们开发了一种基于印刷电路板技术的低成本燃料电池。通过使用已经大量生产的材料，结合完善的制造方法，我们能够以更低的成本快速扩大生产规模。为了进一步提高我们系统的性能，我们希望延长它们的寿命，超出我们目前可以达到的可接受值。通过与国家物理实验室合作，我们打算研究我们的细胞在加速降解条件下失去性能的方式。通过了解导致退化的机制，我们打算提高我们产品的寿命，超过其他技术所能达到的寿命。

Hydrogen fuel cells are a promising technology which can provide clean electricity from an alternative fuel. They have long been hailed as a means to provide more sustainable energy, however they have been hampered by high costs and complexity of manufacture. At Bramble Energy, we have developed a low-cost fuel cell based on printed circuit board technology. By using materials already produced at large volumes, integrated with well-established manufacturing methods, we are able to scale production quickly and at lower cost. In order to further improve the performance of our systems we want to extend their lifespan beyond the acceptable values which we can currently achieve. By working with NPL we intend to study the ways in which our cells lose performance under accelerated degradation conditions. By understanding the mechanisms leading to degradation we intend to improve our the lifetime of our product to exceed that achievable by other technologies.