Highly Active Electrode With Efficiently Added Surface Oxygen Groups for a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

Higher power output by a lower kinetic resistance of the vanadium redox flow battery is needed for its commercialization. In this study, we focused on the air oxidation conditions of carbon paper, which is the electrode material, to reduce the kinetic resistance. The air oxidation is considered to affect the number of surface oxygen groups such as the phenol-type hydroxyl group due to oxidation of the carbon fiber. The surface oxygen groups may correspond to the active sites for the charge/discharge reaction. We quantitatively evaluated the number of surface oxygen groups by temperature-programmed desorption. In addition, we measured the double-layer capacitances of the carbon papers, which may reflect the surface area of the carbon fiber. The single-cell performances, i.e., current–voltage curves and charge–discharge profile, of the electrodes were studied. The air oxidized carbon paper, heat-treated at 500 °C for 3 h (8.4% mass decrease from the pristine sample), showed the highest power density (960 mW cm−2) in this study with thin electrode material (ca., 0.2 mm for one sheet). The negative half-reaction was enhanced by air oxidation. This result could be explained by the reduction of the kinetic resistance by increasing the number of phenol groups, and this power output was relatively high as the vanadium redox flow battery by using a commercial carbon paper and the standard flow field.

Proton-coupled electron transfer in the reduction of diiron hexacarbonyl complexes and its enhancement on the electrocatalytic reduction of protons by a pendant basic group

The pendant basic groups in a diiron complex acted as proton relay to ease the kinetic resistance in proton reduction and enhance proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET).

Asymptotic analysis of the evaporation dynamics of partially wetting droplets

We consider the dynamics of an axisymmetric, partially wetting droplet of a one-component volatile liquid. The droplet is supported on a smooth superheated substrate and evaporates into a pure vapour atmosphere. In this process, we take the liquid properties to be constant and assume that the vapour phase has poor thermal conductivity and small dynamic viscosity so that we may decouple its dynamics from the dynamics of the liquid phase. This leads to a so-called ‘one-sided’ lubrication-type model for the evolution of the droplet thickness, which accounts for the effects of evaporation, capillarity, gravity, slip and kinetic resistance to evaporation. By asymptotically matching the flow near the contact line region and the bulk of the droplet in the limit of a small slip length and commensurably small evaporation and kinetic resistance effects, we obtain coupled evolution equations for the droplet radius and volume. The predictions of our asymptotic analysis, which also include an estimate of the evaporation time, are found to be in excellent agreement with numerical simulations of the governing lubrication model for a broad range of parameter regimes.

Performance Degradation Tests of Phosphoric Acid Doped Polybenzimidazole Membrane Based High Temperature Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

Degradation tests of two phosphoric acid (PA) doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane based high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane (HT-PEM) fuel cells were reported in this paper to investigate the effects of start/stop and the presence of methanol in the fuel to the performance degradation. Continuous tests with H2 and simulated reformate which was composed of H2, water steam and methanol as the fuel were performed on both single cells. 12-h-startup/12-h-shutdown dynamic tests were performed on the first single cell with pure dry H2 as the fuel and on the second single cell with simulated reformate as the fuel. Along with the tests electrochemical techniques such as polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were employed to study the degradation mechanisms of the fuel cells. Both single cells showed an increase in the performance in the H2 continuous tests, because of a decrease in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetic resistance probably due to the redistribution of PA between the membrane and electrodes. EIS measurement of first fuel cell during the start/stop test showed that the mass transfer resistance and ohmic resistance increased which can be attributed to the corrosion of carbon support in the catalyst layer and degradation of the PBI membrane. During the continuous test with simulated reformate as the fuel the ORR kinetic resistance and mass transfer resistance of both single cells increased. The performance of the second single cell experienced a slight decrease during the start/stop test with simulated reformate as the fuel.

Performance Degradation Tests of Phosphoric Acid Doped PBI Membrane Based High Temperature PEM Fuel Cells

Degradation tests of two phosphoric acid (PA) doped PBI membrane based HT-PEM fuel cells were reported in this paper to investigate the effects of start/stop and the presence of methanol in the fuel to the performance degradation. Continuous tests with H2 and simulated reformate which was composed of H2, water steam and methanol as the fuel were performed on both single cells. 12-h-startup/12-h-shutdown dynamic tests were performed on the first single cell with pure dry H2 as the fuel and on the second single cell with simulated reformate as the fuel. Along with the tests electrochemical techniques such as polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were employed to study the degradation mechanisms of the fuel cells. Both single cells showed an increase in the performance in the H2 continuous tests, because of a decrease in the ORR kinetic resistance probably due to the redistribution of PA between the membrane and electrodes. EIS measurement of first fuel cell during the start/stop test showed that the mass transfer resistance and ohmic resistance increased which can be attributed to the corrosion of carbon support in the catalyst layer and degradation of the PBI membrane. During the continuous test with simulated reformate as the fuel the ORR kinetic resistance and mass transfer resistance of both single cells increased. The performance of the second single cell experienced a slight decrease during the start/stop test with simulated reformate as the fuel.