Diagnostics | Energy Conversion Group

Design and Diagnostics

Douglas Kushner exploring flow battery types

Areas of Focus

We use a wide range of advanced diagnostics tools to monitor and study various electrochemical systems and their components. Our techniques and research interest include:

Performance diagnostics for fuel cells, flow batteries and electrolyzers
Transport in Fuel Cell catalyst layers using limiting current density measurements
Durability testing of cells and degradation studies of their components
Traditional analytical techniques including electron microscopy, and elemental analysis

Fuel Cell Diagnostics

Qualitative illustration of gas transport through the fuel-cell catalyst layers. The catalyst layers consist of Pt/Carbon catalyst agglomerates covered by a thin-ionomer film, and the gases diffuse from the CL pores to the Pt particles. The reactant gases encounter a series of transport resistances on their pathway, which hamper the efficiency and limit the fuel-cell performance.