Profile
Keywords: alkaline membrane fuel cells, electrodes fabrication, electrochemical testing
Jiafei received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Dalian University of Technology in 2019. During her studies, she mainly focused on synthesis and experimental tests of anion exchange membranes for fuel cell. Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Secanell with a CSC scholarship and is working on electrode fabrication and testing for alkaline membrane fuel cells.
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Water transport in anion and proton exchange membranes Water balance in anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) is crucial because water not only is produced in the anode but also functions as a reactant in the cathode. Therefore, accurate measurement of AEM water transport properties is important for AEM design to improve AEMFC performance and durability. Very few studies report water transport properties of AEMs; even in those limited studies, interfacial transport rates were either not considered in data analysis or not given as a function of water activity. In this work, the liquid–vapor permeation method was used to determine the water flux across the Aemion® AH1-HNN8-50-X, Fumapem® FAA-3-30/50, and Versogen™ PiperION-A40. Using three numerical models, the results were analyzed to understand whether diffusion or interfacial transport resistances were limiting, and the values were estimated. Our results indicate that interfacial transport is limiting; therefore, the interfacial exchange rate and its activation energy were determined. Water desorption rate of AH1-HNN8-50-X is similar to Nafion®, and the activation energy for this process is also similar at 53.4 kJ/mol. On the other hand, FAA-3-30/50 and PiperION-A40 exhibit two to three times faster desorption and a lower activation energy: 46.0, 41.8, and 46.8 kJ/mol, respectively.T06-P04 University of Alberta Publication 2022-12-21 T06-P04 Performance Loss Breakdown in Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (AEMFCs) Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) open the possibility of using cheaper non-platinum group metal (non-PGM) catalysts, and as a results they have received significant attention in recent years. Most AEMFCs still exhibit limited performance compared to proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The key performance limitations include: a)AEMFC anode and cathode overpotentials are not negligible (HOR kinetics on PGM catalysts in alkaline media is around two orders of magnitude slower than that in acidic environments), b)The water produced by HOR and gained by osmotic drags causes flooding in AEMFC anode. To improve the AEMFC performance, it is essential to know if the potential loss of the AEMFC is derived from anode or cathode. There are limited studies on analyzing the potential losses of the individual electrode of AEMFCs. Performance of individual electrode acquired by modelling studies was based on many estimated parameters . The existing experimental tool, the three-electrode AEMFC, showed unexplainable high anode overpotential, which needs further validation.
T06-P04 University of Alberta Activity 2022-07-25 T06-P04 Green energy cycle with electrolyzers and fuel cells Electricity can be converted into hydrogen by electrolysis. The hydrogen can be then stored and eventually re-electrified. The round trip efficiency today is lower than other storage technologies. The whole process is environmental friendly with water as the only by-product.T06-P04 University of Alberta Activity 2022-05-03 T06-P04 Water Transport Characterization of Anion and Proton Exchange Membranes T06-P04 University of Alberta Publication 2022-10-01 T06-P04 Exploring the impact of ionomer content and distribution on inkjet printed cathodes for anion exchange membrane fuel cells Electrode composition optimization is critical to achieving high and stable anion exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) performance. In this article, inkjet printing is pioneered as a method to fabricate AEMFC electrodes with varying and graded cathode ionomer loading in order to assess its impact on electrode electrochemical properties, cell performance and stability. Inkjet printed catalyst layers (CLs) exhibited decreasing porosity with increasing ionomer content, maintaining a constant active area at 50 C under fully humidified conditions. The increase in active area and ionic conductivity with increasing ionomer content was detectable only at higher temperatures. At 60 C with 90% relative humidity inlet gases, the AEMFCs with cathode electrodes with optimal 20 wt% uniform ionomer content achieved a highly repeatable and stable performance of 0.53 W/cm2 with a total loading of 0.3 mg/cm2. Grading the cathode ionomer content, with higher concentration near the membrane and lower near the gas diffusion layer (GDL), does not improve cell performance, indicating neither cathode conductivity nor mass transport limits performance. When tested at 80 C, AEMFCs with a graded cathode ionomer structure (30 wt% near the membrane and 20 wt% near the GDL) demonstrated improved stability compared to those with a uniform 20 wt% ionomer content. This stability improvement is attributed to better water retention with more cathode ionomer content, as evidenced by the cell’s ability to maintain low resistance.T06-P04, T06-A03 University of Alberta Publication 2025-01-01 T06-P04, T06-A03 Exploring the Impact of Cathode Ionomer Content on Alkaline Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (AEMFCs) Using Inkjet Printing Technique T06-P04, T06-A03 University of Alberta Publication 2024-10-22 T06-P04, T06-A03 Bifunctional Oxygen Electrodes for PEM-Unitized Regenerative Fuel Cell Fabricated By Inkjet Printing T06-P04, T06-A03 University of Alberta Publication 2024-10-22 T06-P04, T06-A03
