Electrochemical cell

An electrochemical cell is a device that generates electrical energy from chemical reactions. Electrical energy can also be applied to these cells to cause chemical reactions to occur. Electrochemical cells which generate an electric current are called voltaic or galvanic cells and those that generate chemical reactions, via electrolysis for example, are called electrolytic cells. Both galvanic and electrolytic cells can be thought of as having two half-cells: consisting of separate oxidation and reduction reactions. When one or more electrochemical cells are connected in parallel or series they make a battery. Primary cells are single use batteries. Types of electrochemical cells Galvanic cell Galvanic cell A galvanic cell (voltaic cell) named after Luigi Galvani (Alessandro Volta) is an electrochemical cell that generates electrical energy from spontaneous redox reactions. A wire connects two different metals (ex. Zinc and Copper). Each metal is in a sep

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On the role of pore constrictions in gas diffusion electrodes

Michele Bozzetti, Yen-Chun Chen, Robin Pierre Alain Girod, Vasiliki Tileli

Water management by gas diffusion electrodes is a fundamental aspect of the performance of electrochemical cells. Herein, we introduce the characteristic constrictions size as a descriptor for microporous layers (MPL). This parameter is calculated by volumetric analysis of focused ion beam nanotomography and compared to mercury intrusion porosimetry measurements.

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2022

Performance evolution and modeling of PEM fuel cell systems

Nicolas Roggo

In the context of climate change mitigation, different alternatives to reduce the atmospheric CO2 emissions are; increasing the efficiency, switching to renewable resource and reduce emissions from fossil resources by CO2 capture and storage (CCS) . Hydrogen is considered as potential alternative to cover the energy needs by using it as a fuel in internal combustion engines or fuel cells, or as chemical source. In proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, also known as polymer exchange membrane fuel cells, pure hydrogen fuelis combined with the oxygen from the atmosphere to produce water, heat and electricity. Many research has been done in recent years on fuel cell systems leading to higher efficiencies. The performance is influenced by the membrane properties, the catalysts, the number of cells and the operating conditions. For studying the performance of fuel cell systems process modeling is a well-known approach. Here the evolution of fuel cell efficiency, especially of PEMFC is studied within the aim of updating previously developed PEMFC process models to integrate them with different hydrogen production processes using fossil and renewable resources in order to assess the competitiveness on the energy market.

2012

Compact and General Strategy for Solving Current and Potential Distribution in Electrochemical Cells Composed of Massive Monopolar and Bipolar Electrodes

Alejandro Nicolás Colli, Hubert Girault

A compact, fast and general algorithm based on Dirichlet boundary conditions for the potential field is derived to enable the calculation of local current distribution, shunt currents and the local potential distribution on massive electrodes in electrochemical cells of any type of geometry in three dimensions, composed of bipolar electrodes at an unknown floating potential and/or terminal monopolar electrodes. The algorithm allows performing the calculation of current-potential distributions and bypass currents for a fixed cell potential (potentiostatic) or a fixed cell current (galvanostatic) enforced to the cell. The proposed approach can be extended to take into account concentration variations of one or several species inside the cell or electrical conductivity variations due to the presence of separators or liquid-gas-solid phases. In order to validate the algorithm, a detailed comparison, between the suggested strategy with experimental results is made in the case of secondary current distribution for i) a segmented one bipolar electrode ii) a cell stack composed of 14 bipolar electrodes in the industrial process of alkaline water electrolysis. The proposed tool can help designers to develop more efficient electrochemical reactors by comparing results using different electrode materials, electrolytes and cell designs. (C) The Author(s) 2017. Published by ECS. All rights reserved.

2017

Electric battery

A battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering electrical devices. When a battery is supplying power, its positive ter

Electrochemistry

Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical ch

Electrode

An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or air). Electrodes are essential parts of batteries

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