For the goal of practical industrial development of fuel cells, cheap, sustainable and high performance electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) which rival those based on platinum (Pt) and other rare materials are highly desirable. In this work, we report a class of cheap and high-performance metal-free oxygen reduction electrocatalysts obtained by co-doping carbon blacks with nit...

an essential requirement for an operating pem fuel cell is providing proper water content in the membrane. to avoid water flooding an appropriate water balance is required. here, an analytic model of a planar membrane humidifier for pem fuel cell is proposed where the effect of dimensional parameters includes membrane thickness, membrane area and channel hydraulic diameter are investigated. a n...

the microphase separation of hydrated perfluorinated sulfonic acid membrane nafion was investigated using dissipative particle dynamics (dpd). the nafion as a polymer was modelled by connecting coarse grained beads which corresponds to the hydrophobic backbone of polytetrafluoroethylene and perfluorinated side chains terminated by hydrophilic end particles of sulfonic acid groups [1, 2]. each f...

in the near future the use of distributed generation systems will play a big role in the production ofelectrical energy. one of the most common types of dg technologies , fuel cells , which can be connectedto the national grid by power electronic converters or work alone studies the dynamic behavior andstability of the power grid is of crucial importance. these studies need to know the exact mo...

a two-dimensional cfd model of a planar solid oxide fuel cell (sofc) has been developed.this model can predict the performance of sofc at various operating and design conditions.the effect of knudsen diffusion is accounted in the porous electrode (backing) and reaction zonelayers. the mathematical model solves conservation of electrons and ions and conservation ofspecies. the model is formulate...

This study investigates the effect of 1 mmol dm(-3) concentrations of a selection of small cationic molecules on the performance of a fuel cell grade oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst (Johnson Matthey HiSPEC 3000, 20 mass% Pt/C) in aqueous KOH (1 mol dm(-3)). The cationic molecules studied include quaternary ammonium (including those based on bicyclic systems) and imidazolium types as we...