This week’s digital digest features three papers (a perspective, a communication, and a research article), all of which, coincidentally or not, entail the migration of anions in an electrochemical cell.
In their perspective, Thompson and his colleagues from the Fuel Cell Technologies Office of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy present a concise, yet thorough analysis of the current status and future needs in alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs). A list of milestones is then provided to guide AEMFC R&D in the next decade to address the challenging aspects in AEMFC MEAs, e.g. chemical activity, durability, water management, and cost. (Contact author: Dimitrios Papageorgopoulos at dimitrios.papageorgopoulos@ee.doe.gov)
Schwämmlein’s research article presents a well-designed measurement of the through-plane conductivity of hydroxide and (bi)carbonate ions in a commercially available AEM from -20 to 50oC. Figure 8 summarizes the dependence of through-plane conductivity for both anions on temperature and relative humidity. The activation energy for the conduction of both ions shows two different temperature regimes, roughly separated by the freezing point of water, which may have significant implications for the freez e start-up capability of AEMFCs for automotive applications. (Contact author: Jan Schwämmlein at jan.schwaemmlein@tum.de)
A communication by Lohmann-Richters et al. reports the possibility to carry out water electrolysis at approximately 150oC by using a solid-state electrolyte consisting of layered double hydroxides, [Mg2Al(OH)6]NO3. (Contact author: Felix Lohmann-Richters at f.lohmann-richters@fz-juelich.de)
I would like to thank the reviewers for their diligent service to The Electrochemical Society, which made the following publications possible.
With my best regards,
Xiao-Dong Zhou
Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Energy Conversion Technical Editor
Journal of The Electrochemical Society