Divide and Conquer
The objective was to measure spatially resolved fuel cell performance. In collaboration with Dr. Schwager, we developed the required hardware and demonstrated its application. My contribution focused on hardware development, whilst Dr. Schwager led the experimentation.
Fuel cell hardware was developed with electronically isolated segments, but common ionic connectivity (membrane). This included MEA segmentation via laser ablation. The cell was driven by a 16 channel potentiostat and current booster system with electrical impedance spectroscopy capabilities. This consituted a major capital investment for our laboratory.
World leading capabilities were developed, comparable only those of our colleagues at Fraunhofer ISE. It has been used to explore spatially resolved fuel cell catalyst layer degradation under accelerated stress testing, and how this may be exacerbated by startup/shutdown protocols.
