| Pacific Rim Symposium on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces (PacSurf 2014) | |
| Energy Harvesting & Storage | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session EH-WeM |
| Session: | Characterization of Materials for Energy Applications I |
| Presenter: | Adam Hitchcock, McMaster University, Canada |
| Authors: | AP. Hitchcock, McMaster University, Canada V. Lee, McMaster University, Canada V. Berejnov, AFCC, Canada D. Susac, AFCC, Canada J. Stumper, AFCC, Canada |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Low temperature, hydrogen-fueled, proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM-FC) based engines are being developed rapidly for near-term implementation in mass production, personal automobiles. Materials and process research aiming to further optimize these systems is focused on understanding and controlling various degradation processes (carbon corrosion, Pt migration, cold start), and reducing cost by reducing or eliminating Pt in the electro-catalyst, especially for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). We are using soft X-ray scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) at the S 2p, C 1s, O 1s and F 1s edges to study a variety of issues related to optimization of PEM-FC materials for automotive applications. STXM provides spectroscopic identification and quantitative mapping of chemical components with 30 nm spatial resolution in both 2D projection and 3D spectro-tomography. Themes of our studies include: mapping ionomer in cathodes of beginning-of-life and end-of-life membrane electrode assemblies [1,2, 3]; investigating Pt-in-membrane [4] and carbon corrosion degradation [3]; studies of alternate electrode technologies (3M nanostructured thin films [5], ink-jet print [6]); and measuring water distributions in situ [7]. The O 1s spectra of the 3 phases of water differ from those of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) constituents allowing direct in-situ visualization of water uptake and quantitative mapping of gas and liquid/sorbed water. A newly developed environmental cell for in situ studies with controlled humidity and temperature will be described and its current performance will be outlined.
Research funded by AFCC and NSERC. Measurements were made at the Canadian Light Source (supported by NSERC, NRC, CIHR, and the University of Saskatchewan) and at the Advanced Light Source (supported by the Division of Basic Energy Sciences of U.S. DoE).
[1] D. Susac, V. Berejnov, A.P. Hitchcock and J. Stumper, ECS Transactions 50 (2012) 405
[2] V. Berejnov, D. Susac, J. Stumper and A.P. Hitchcock, ECS Transactions, 50 (2012) 361
[3] A.P. Hitchcock, et al., J. Power Sources 266 (2014) 66
[4] V. Berejnov, et al, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 14 (2012) 4835
[5] V. Lee, V. Berejnov, M. West, S. Kundu, D. Susac, J. Stumper, R.T. Atanasoski, M. Debe and A.P. Hitchcock, J. Power Sources 263 (2014) 163
[6] M.S. Saha, M. Tam, V. Berejnov, D. Susac, S. McDermid, A.P. Hitchcock and J. Stumper, ECS Transactions, 58 (2013) 797
[7] V. Berejnov, D. Susac, J. Stumper and A.P. Hitchcock,ECS Transactions 41 (2011) 39