Dear Colleagues,

 

This week the digest features 11 papers, three of which were contributed by one of the Associate Editors, Dr. Thomas Schmidt, along with M. Siegwart and Pierre Boillat, from the Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland. I would like to draw your attention to the following two articles.

 

“Seeing” water distribution in PEMFCs under operation. Neutron interferometry is a non-destructive, yet very powerful technique, which can probe the structural heterogeneity on a scale from 0.1 μm to 10 μm. A neutron interacts strongly with hydrogen, making it ideal for fuel cell research, for instance the use of neutron imaging for the analysis of water freezing in PEFMCs. Neutron grating interferometry is a new, unique, and sophisticated method to image PEMFCs and other electrochemical devices. Figure 13 of this paper shows sequential images of water moving in the channels of a gas diffusion layer. (Contact author: Pierre Boillat at pierre.boillat@psi.ch)

 

Dependence of electrodics on the microstructure of carbon support in PEMFC cathode. A research paper reporting systematic and comprehensive results obtained by researchers at General Motors to demonstrate the effects of carbon support microstructure (micropore and macropore volumes) on the electrode phenomena (local-O2 and bulk-H+ transport resistance). This paper closely ties in with a prior JES Editors’ Choice article, entitled “Connecting Fuel Cell Catalyst Nanostructure and Accessibility Using Quantitative Cryo-STEM Tomography”. (Contact author: Nagappan Ramaswamy at: nagappan.ramaswamy@gm.com)

 

Lastly, we would like to thank all reviewers and authors who contributed to publications this week in Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Energy Conversion.

 

Xiao-Dong Zhou

Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Energy Conversion Technical Editor

Journal of The Electrochemical Society

 

 

The spring 2020 issue of Interface, guest edited by Gregory S. Jackson from the Colorado School of Mines, takes a look at electrochemistry in space. With many of us working in a remote capacity and due to postal delays in many countries, it may be a while until many of our members receive the print version. In this interim period, please enjoy the digital version of the issue now available online.

 

 

Journal of The Electrochemical Society

 

Carbon Electrocatalysts For Hydrazine Oxidation: Self-Templating Design Of Hierarchical Porosity Using Barium Carbonate Nanoparticles

Eliyahu M. Farber, Kasinath Ojha, Tomer Y. Burshtein, and David Eisenberg

Read now | Open access

 

Three-Dimensional Amorphous NiCoFe Nanowire@Nanosheets Catalysts for Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Xiaoqian Wei, Xin Luo, Zhikun Xu, Yu Wu, Hengjia Wang, Wenling Gu, and Chengzhou Zhu

Read now

 

Impact of the Microporous Layer on Gas Diffusion Layers with Patterned Wettability I: Material Design and Characterization

Victoria Manzi-Orezzoli, Muriel Siegwart, Dirk Scheuble, Yen-Chun Chen, Thomas J. Schmidt, and Pierre Boillat

Read now | Open access

 

Stability Comparison of Pt and Ni as Base Metal Catalysts in Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Lin Xie and Donald W. Kirk

Read now | Open access

 

Ni-Fe Bimetallic Nanocatalysts Produced by Topotactic Exsolution in Fe deposited PrBaMn1.7Ni0.3O5+δ for Dry Reforming of Methane

Sangwook Joo, Ohhun Kwon, Seona Kim, Hu Young Jeong, and Guntae Kim

Read now

 

Methodical Exploration on Silicotungstic Acid Tailored Hybrid Bio-polymeric Proton-Exchange Membrane Electrolytes: Correlating Positron Annihilation Characteristics with Electrochemical Selectivity for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Mohanapriya Subramanian, Sanjeevamuthu Suganthi, Vairamuthu Raj, Santhanalakshmi Baghavathy, and Subbiah Alwarappan

Read now

 

Spatially Resolved Analysis of Freezing during Isothermal PEFC Cold Starts with Time-of-Flight Neutron Imaging

M. Siegwart, F. Huang, M. Cochet, T. J. Schmidt, J. Zhang, and P. Boillat

Read now | Open access

 

Operando Visualization of Water Distribution in Gas Diffusion Media of PEFCs with an Optimized Neutron Grating Interferometer

M. Siegwart, V. Manzi-Orezzoli, J. Valsecchi, R. P. Harti, M. Kagias, M. Strobl, C. Grünzweig, T. J. Schmidt, and P. Boillat

Read now | Open access

 

Interface of Hydrated Perfluorosulfonic Acid Electrolyte with a Platinum Catalyst: Structural Analyses with Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulations

Nobuo Tajima, Jun Nara, Taku Ozawa, Hiroya Nitta, Kosuke Ohata, and Takahisa Ohno

Read now

 

Performance and Durability of One-Cell Module of Biogas-Utilizing SOFC Equipped with Graded Indirect Internal Reformer

Özgür Aydın, Go Matsumoto, Atsushi Kubota, Dang Long Tran, Mio Sakamoto, and Yusuke Shiratori

Read now

 

Carbon Support Microstructure Impact on High Current Density Transport Resistances in PEMFC Cathode

Nagappan Ramaswamy, Wenbin Gu, Joseph M. Ziegelbauer, and Swami Kumaraguru

Read now | Open access