cover image: Oxygen diffusion impedance in proton exchange membrane fuel cells – insights into electrochemical impedance spectra and equivalent electrical circuit modeling

Oxygen diffusion impedance in proton exchange membrane fuel cells – insights into electrochemical impedance spectra and equivalent electrical circuit modeling

20 Dec 2023

In Randles circuit, the oxygen diffusion impedance connects in series with the Oxygen Reduction Reaction charge-transfer resistance, implying that the Cathode Catalyst Layer (CCL) governs oxygen diffusion. The oxygen diffusion impedance can be connected in series with the ORR circuit, implying that Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) rules oxygen diffusion. The common finite Warburg element and an alternative expression for diffusion through GDL derived by Kulikovsky were tested and compared. For this, experimental data obtained from measurements on various cells geometries, MEA types and operating conditions were used. All cases yield the same trend: the low frequency diffusion impedance in PEMFC mainly relates to the GDL, or both the GDL and the CCL, the latter to a significantly lower extent. EI spectra measured for different cathode Pt-loadings suggest that the ionomer film inside the CCL contributes rather to the high-frequency resistance, increasingly at lower catalyst loading. Hence, the physically most appropriate equivalent electrical circuit is a Kulikovsky diffusion impedance connected in series with the ORR kinetics circuit. Comparing global and local impedance spectra confirmed the significant contribution of perturbation-induced oxygen concentration oscillations to the low frequency loop in Nyquist plots: analyzing local impedance data measured near the oxygen inlet allows to minimize their impact.

Authors

William Aït-Idir, Peizhe Wu, Ricardo Sgarbi, Quentin Labarde, Salah Touhami, Meriem Daoudi, Assma El Kaddouri, Jean-Christophe Perrin, Jérôme Dillet, Clémence Marty, Fabrice Micoud, Marian Chatenet, Olivier Lottin, Julia Mainka

Bibliographic Reference
William Aït-Idir, Peizhe Wu, Ricardo Sgarbi, Quentin Labarde, Salah Touhami, et al.. Oxygen diffusion impedance in proton exchange membrane fuel cells – insights into electrochemical impedance spectra and equivalent electrical circuit modeling. Electrochimica Acta, 2023, 472, pp.143430. ⟨10.1016/j.electacta.2023.143430⟩. ⟨hal-04279060v2⟩
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2023.143430
Department
ARC-Nucleart CEA Grenoble
European Project Title
['European Fund for Economic and Regional Development', 'EIT Raw Materials project, Advanced Low-Platinum hierarchical Electrocatalysts for low-T fuel cells']
Funding
['French Environmental and Energy Management Agency ADEME', 'Region Grand Est']
HAL Collection
["CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique", 'Université Savoie Mont Blanc', 'HAL Grenoble Alpes', 'CNRS - Centre national de la recherche scientifique', 'Institut polytechnique de Grenoble', 'OpenAIRE', "Laboratoire d'Electrochimie et de Physicochimie des Matériaux et des Interfaces", 'Direction de la recherche technologique', 'Université de Lorraine', 'Institut de Chimie du CNRS', "LEMTA - Laboratoire d'Energétique et de Mécanique Théorique et Appliquée", "Laboratoire d'Innovation pour les Technologies des Energies Nouvelles et les nanomatériaux", 'CEA Grenoble', 'Université Grenoble Alpes [2020-*]', 'ANR', "Institut National de l'Energie Solaire", 'Pôle Energie, Mécanique, Procédés, Produits']
HAL Identifier
4312511
Institution
['Université de Lorraine', 'Institut de Chimie - CNRS Chimie', 'Université Savoie Mont Blanc', 'Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology', "Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives"]
Laboratory
['Laboratoire Énergies et Mécanique Théorique et Appliquée', "Laboratoire d'Electrochimie et de Physico-chimie des Matériaux et des Interfaces", "Laboratoire d'Innovation pour les Technologies des Energies Nouvelles et les nanomatériaux"]
Published in
France

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