(1990) Unsteady state performance of porous gas-diffusion electrodes in alkaline fuel cell. Masters thesis, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.
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Arabic Abstract
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English Abstract
The unsteady state method of employing exponential decay current was used to determine the performance of the hydrogen electrode of the alkaline fuel cell. A triangular wave technique was also carried out in a separate investigation in order to compare the results with that of the exponential decay current. The study was undertaken in a half-cell. The fuel was pure hydrogen and the electrolyte was a 25% solution KOH. The electrode used was a Raney-Nickel supplied by DLR of Germany. The experiments were carried out for the temperature range of 30-C-65-C. In the exponential current technique, the input currents were generated from the discharge of capacitors of different sizes. The responses of the fuel cell to the input currents were then analysed to determine the intrinsic parameters such as the exchange current densities I and the double layer capacitances C. The activation energy and the surface roughness factors were also determined. The ranges of values obtained for the exchange current densities and the double layer capacitance were (1.05-11.9) x10⁻⁶ A/cm² and (19-104) x10⁻³F respectively for the temperature range of the investigation. The activation energy was found to be 4.15 kcal/gmol and the surface roughness factor at 65⁰C was 34x10⁻⁴CM²/CM². It was realised that both the exchange current density and the surface roughness factor were high while the activation energy was low compared to that reported earlier in the literature. These results showed that the electrodes have better performance due to the improved preparation techniques. An increase in temperature also promoted more electrochemical reactions to take place resulting in the increase of the performance of the fuel cell.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Chemical Engineering |
| Department: | College of Chemicals and Materials > Chemical Engineering |
| Committee Advisor: | Gultekin, Selahattin |
| Committee Members: | Al-Saleh, Muhammad A. and Al-Zakri, Abdullah S. |
| Depositing User: | Mr. Admin Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Jun 2008 13:54 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2019 13:54 |
| URI: | http://eprints.kfupm.edu.sa/id/eprint/10015 |