Baolian Yi

A Hard‐Template Method for the Preparation of IrO2, and Its Performance in a Solid‐Polymer‐Electrolyte Water Electrolyzer

Morphological control by SBA-15: The performance of catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) depends strongly on their structural and morphological properties. An IrO(2) nanomaterial with a morphology suitable for the OER is prepared by using a synthetic scheme involving a zeolite template, and shows enhanced activity and stability compared to IrO(2) fabricated by the traditional Adams-fusion method.

Dynamic Test and Real-time Control Platform of Anode Recirculation for PEM Fuel Cell Systems

Anode recirculation is essential to the pure-hydrogen proton exchange membrane fuel cell system. Keeping the pressure difference between the anode and the cathode is also important to the membrane health. In this paper, a dynamic platform was designed for the recirculation test of injection pump and real-time control of the anode pressure tracking. The test bench can work in a wide range of conditions for high- and low-pressure application. Based on the MATLAB/xPC Target environment, some S functions were written to drive the PC board for the hardware-in-loop application. Then an analytical full-order and a reduced-order model were built with good accuracy. By linearization of the nonlinear dynamic model, a linear quadratic Gaussian algorithm based on state feedback was used for set-point tracking. Moreover, an adaptive fuzzy neural network with an on-line neural network identifier was also designed to improve the control robustness. The foundation of the test bench and realization of the real-time control algorithms are meaningful to the future application in fuel cell systems.

A novel porous sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)-based multi-layer composite membrane for proton exchange membrane fuel cell application

An advanced sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (sPEEK)-based multi-layer composite membrane with high performance and durability is fabricated, which consists of a porous sPEEK base membrane, two transition layers (TLs) and two PFSA outer layers (PLs). These porous sPEEK base membranes with nanoscale pores are prepared first through a vapor induced phase inversion (VIPI) method. Owing to the higher porosity and the denser distribution of sulfonic acid clusters, the cell performance and physical properties of porous sPEEK membranes are superior to those of sPEEK membranes prepared by a solvent casting method. The multi-layer structure of this composite membrane results in reduced swelling and improved water uptake, and eventually brings about a high proton conductivity. Single cell tests indicate that the multi-layer composite membrane has a higher cell performance and more outstanding durability in comparison with sPEEK membranes. The growth rate of hydrogen crossover current density of this composite membrane is much lower than that of sPEEK membranes, proving the effectiveness of PLs in improving the chemical durability of sPEEK-base membranes. After long-term stability tests, the sPEEK multi-layer composite membrane still shows a good cell performance, especially at low relative humidity (RH).

A novel cathode architecture using Cu nanoneedle arrays as the cathode support for AAEMFC application

A novel cathode architecture using vertically aligned Cu nanoneedle arrays (NNAs) as an ordered support for alkaline anion-exchange membrane fuel cell (AAEMFC) application is developed. Cu NNAs are directly grown on a GDL via three steps of electrochemical reaction. After depositing a Pd layer on the surface of Cu by a pulse electrodeposition method to form Pd/CuNNAs, the cathode catalyst layer is formed. The AAEMFC prepared without alkaline ionomer in the cathode catalyst layer shows an enhanced performance with ultra-low Pd loading down to 47 μg cm−2, which is much higher than that of a conventional cathode electrode with the Pt loading of 100 μg cm−2. This is the first report where three-dimensional Cu NNAs are applied as the cathode support in an AAEMFC, which is able to deliver a higher power density without an alkaline ionomer than conventional MEAs.