Coupled Dynamics of Anode and Cathode in Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells |
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Authors: | Jéssica A Nogueira Prof Dr Katharina Krischer Prof Dr Hamilton Varela |
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Institution: | 1. Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos, University of São Paulo P.O. Box 780, 13560-970 São Carlos, SP, Brazil;2. Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, James-Franck-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany |
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Abstract: | An external reference electrode was used to monitor individually the evolution of the anodic and cathodic potentials during the stationary as well as oscillatory operation of a Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell (DFAFC) and a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC). Besides evidencing the large activation loss in both cells, we were able to observe how the oscillatory operation of such devices affects their cathodes. In fact, cathodic oscillations synchronized with the cell voltage dynamics were observed, hitherto never reported on fuel cells. We have addressed these phenomena taking into account two main coupling processes: through the proton concentration and a global coupling stemming from the control mode (potentiostatic or galvanostatic). |
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Keywords: | formic acid fuel cells methanol oscillations reference electrodes |
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