Dear Colleagues,
Before highlighting three papers this week, I would like to thank all reviewers and authors for their contributions to the Journal of The Electrochemical Society.
Vapor-fed water electrolysis. The paper by Fornaciari et al. reports a combined experimental and modeling study on the water-vapor fed electrolysis with a focus on water management and transport. The model shows that mass transport limitations can be alleviated by considering the role of water as both a reactant and a hydrating agent. (Contact author: Adam Weber at azweber@lbl.gov)
CO2 reduction in a flow-through GDE. Chen at al. presents a modeling study which shows a flow-through gas diffusion electrode exhibits a greater current density and a higher selectivity for the reduction of CO2 or CO than a planar electrode. The reduction rate is found to be dependent on the local CO or CO2 concentration, pH at the reaction site, pH-dependent kinetics of the catalysts, and catalyst morphology. (Contact author: Nathan Lewis at nslewis@caltech.edu and CX Xiang at cxx@caltech.edu)
Suppressing the crack formation in high temperature PEMFCs. Zhang et al. reports an approach to suppress the formation of cracks in the catalyst layer of high temperature PEMFCs by adding carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The addition of an optimized amount of CNTs to PEMFCs leads to a better distribution of phosphoric acid (a proton conducting medium) in the catalyst layer, subsequently increases effective triple phase boundaries, and improves the electrochemical performance and durability. (Contact author: Shanfu Lu at lusf@buaa.edu.cn)
With best regards,
Xiao-Dong Zhou
Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Energy Conversion Technical Editor
Journal of The Electrochemical Society