STXM studies of novel fuel cell structures under various temperature and humidity conditions

基于氢的聚合物电解质膜燃料电池（PEM-FC）具有极大的潜力来显著减少用于固定和移动的动力的系统的碳排放。由福特和戴姆勒共同拥有的AFCC汽车燃料电池合作公司（简称AFCC）致力于生产经济、可靠、高性能的氢燃料电池，并为汽车应用进行了优化。目前阻碍燃料电池广泛使用的一个因素是它们的可靠性。软X射线光谱显微镜是一种基于光源的技术，具有巨大的潜力，可以揭示燃料电池故障的原因，并提供可用于合理改进材料和工艺的信息。该项目建立在NSERC支持的合作研究和开发（CRD）项目的基础上，该项目将于2013年8月完成。具体来说，我们将使用先进的环境细胞原位X射线显微镜研究，这是在目前的CRD开发，研究几个基本问题，相关的PEMFC性能在典型的和不利的操作条件下。这有望改善燃料电池材料在寒冷气候下的坚固性。

Hydrogen based, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEM-FC) have great potential to dramatically reduce carbon emissions from systems used for both stationary and mobile power. The AFCC Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation Corp. (AFCC, for short), which is co-owned by Ford and Daimler, is dedicated to producing economic, reliable, high performance hydrogen fuel cells optimized for use in automotive applications. A factor currently impeding wider use of fuel cells is their reliability. Soft X-ray spectromicroscopy is a light-source based technique with tremendous potential to reveal causes of fuel cell failure and to provide information that can be used for rational improvement to materials and processes. This project builds on an NSERC-supported collaborative research and development (CRD) project which will finish in Aug. 2013. Specifically we will use an advanced environmental cell for in situ X-ray microscopy studies, which was developed in the current CRD, to examine several fundamental issues related to PEMFCs performance under both typically and adverse operating conditions. This is expected to improve how fuel cell materials are engineered to be robust in cold climates.