Water transport in fuel cell membranes measured by laser interferometry

(cont.) The coefficients of electro-osmotic drag were found to increase with the increasing water content, which indicates that the Grotthuss mechanism of proton transfer is not active in the membranes with low water content. The successful evaluation of these coefficients has not only showed the validity of this new technique, which is confirmed by the agreement between the measured coefficients and the models proposed to explain the transport of water within Nafion® membranes, but also provided useful information to describe and understand the water transport mechanism in Nafion® membranes. Finally, the application of the laser interferometry to the membranes within a fuel cell has demonstrated the feasibility of the technique as an in-situ tool for monitoring the water content, which can be used for optimizing the designs of fuel cell components.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Jungik, 1973-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Yang Shao-Horn.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49758

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/49758