Speaker
Description
Fuel cells are important part of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives, such as hydrogen. The performance and durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells are strongly governed by the microstructure of the catalyst layer, which in turn is determined by the properties and processing of the catalyst ink. My work focuses on understanding how ink formulation and rheology control the resulting catalyst layer structure and thereby the electrochemical behaviour of the cell.
I combine rheological characterization of catalyst inks with ex situ structural and electrochemical measurements. Nitrogen sorption is used to quantify pore size distribution and surface area of the resulting layers, while SEM provide complementary information on morphology.
A large part of evaluating electrochemical performance is assessed through polarization curves, cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to link structural features to kinetic, transport, and degradation phenomena. These methods are used to find correlations between the previously mentioned methods and performance of the fuel cell.
I have previously applied small-angle X-ray scattering to catalyst inks with promising results. I now aim to systematically integrate small-angle scattering into my research to probe nanoscale organization of carbon support and ionomer directly in the ink state and in the formed catalyst layer.