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To further increase platinum utilisation in PEM fuel cells CNFs are investigated as catalyst support material due to the CNF’s high specific surface area. Furthermore, CNFs provide suitable properties concerning corrosion resistance as well as electrical conductivity in contrast to conventional carbon supports.
This work presents the results of an electrode preparation procedure based on O2 plasma activated CNFs. The plasma treatment leads to CNF dispersibility in alcohol/water for a spray coating process. Furthermore, O2 plasma activation enhances metal deposition on the CNF’s surface. Pulse plating procedure as well as wet chemical metal synthesis have been used for particle deposition. For pulse plating a potentiostat/galvanostat type MMates 510 AC from Materials Mates, Italy has been used. Electrode morphology has been determined in SEM type XL 30 ESEM from Philips, The Netherlands.
Since the 1980’s, against the backdrop of global warming and the decline of conventional energy resources, low emission and renewable energy systems have gotten into the focus of politics as well as research and development. In order to decrease the emission of greenhouse gases Germany intents to generate 80% of its electrical energy from renewable and low emission sources by 2050. For low emission electricity generation hydrogen operated fuel cells are a potential solution. However, although fuel cell technology has been well known since the 19th century cost effective materials are needed to achieve a breakthrough in the market.
Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells with Carbon Nanotubes as Electrode Material
At the Westphalian Energy Institute of the Wesphalian University of Applied Sciences one main focus is on the research of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). PEMFC membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) consist of a polymer membrane with electrolytic properties covered on both sides by a catalyst layer (CL) as well as a porous and electrical conductive gas diffusion layer (GDL).
For PEMFC carbon nanotubes (CNT) have ideal properties as electrode material concerning electrical conductivity, oxidation resistance and media transport. CNTs are suitable for the use as catalyst support material within the CL due to their large surface in comparison to conventional carbon supports. Furthermore, oxygen plasma treated CNTs show electrochemical activity referred to hydrogen adsorption and desorption, which has been shown by cyclic voltammetry in 0.5 M sulfuric acid solution. According to the PEMFCs anode a GDL coated with oxygen plasma activated CNTs has promising properties to significantly reduce catalyst content (e.g. platinum) of the anodic CL.
The membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) developed at the Westphalian Energy Institute are based on oxygen plasma activated carbon nanotubes (CNT) doped with platinum particles. For electrode preparation an ink is used containing the activated CNTs as well as hydrophobic and hydrophilic material in solved form. After this ink is sprayed onto a graphitic substrate platinum particles are deposited by pulse plating method, where the plasma activation enhances CNT dispersibility as well as platinum deposition. This materials mixture is structured in nanoscale with the aim to increase the catalyst particles’ specific surface. For low reactance at operation, homogeneous compression of the MEA’s layers is necessary within a PEMFC. A novel stack architecture for electrochemical cells, especially PEMFC as well as PEM electrolysers, has been developed in order to achieve ideal cell operation conditions. Single cells of such a stack are inserted into flexible slots that are surrounded by a hydraulic medium which is pressurised during operation in order to achieve an even compression and cooling of the stack’s cells. With this stack design it has been possible to construct a test facility for simultaneous characterisation of several MEA samples. As compression and temperature conditions of every single sample are the same, the effects of e.g. different electrode configurations can be investigated with the novel test system.
Adhesive organs like arolia of insects allow these animals to climb on different substrates by creating high adhesion forces. According to the Dahlquist criterion, arolia must be very soft exhibiting an effective Young's modulus of below 100 kPa to adhere well to different substrates. In previous studies the effective Young´s moduli of adhesive organs were determined using indentation tests yielding their structure to be very soft indeed. However, arolia show a layered structure, thus the values measured by indentation tests comprise the effective Young´s moduli of the whole organs. In this study, a new approach is illustrated to measure the Young´s modulus of the outermost layer of the arolium, i.e. of the epicuticle, of the stick insect Carausius morosus by tensile testing. Due to the inner fibrous structure of the arolium tensile tests allow the characterisation of the overlying epicuticle.
Adhesive organs enable insects to reversibly adhere to substrates even during rapid locomotion. In this process a very fast but reliable change of adhesion and detachment is realised. The stick insect Carausius morosus detaches its adhesive organs by peeling them off the substrate, meaning little areas of the adhesive organs are detached one after another. For such a detachment mechanism low pulling forces are needed. A detachment mechanism as peeling seems also for artificial adhesion devices to be the easiest and the most effortless mechanism for detachment. However, artificial adhesion devices mostly exhibit a solid backing layer preventing effortless peeling. To lift up and detach a small area at the corner of an adhesion device the backing layer has to be tilted, resulting in a deformation of the whole adhesion device, which requires high forces. Subdividing the backing layer into small subunits allows a detachment of a small area at the corner of the adhesion device without deforming the rest of the adhesion device. Thereby, less force is needed to initiate and to complete detachment. To realise an easy detachment of artificial adhesion devices we constructed a holder, which gradually detaches an adhesion device from two sides off the substrate. During normal loading the subunits of the holder interlock with each other so that the pulling force is equally distributed over the whole contact area of the adhesion device ensuring maximal adhesion force. In addition, the holder can be used to increase adhesion during application of the adhesion device. When brought into contact with the substrate with lifted sides, which are lowered subsequently, air trapping is prevented and hence the area of contact can be maximised.
Many fluids transported by pipelines are in some sense hazardous. It is therefore often necessary to install leak detection (and locating) systems (LDS), especially due to legal regulations like the "Code for Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 49 Part 195", API 1130 2nd Ed., both for the USA, or the "Technische Regeln für Fernleitungen" (TRFL) (Technical Rules for Pipelines) in Germany. This paper gives a survey of methodologies, methods and techniques for leak detection and locating. The survey starts with some remarks concerning (legal) regulations both for the USA and for Germany. Some few words about externally based systems (due to API 1130 2nd Ed.) follow next. A significant part of the paper deals with internally based systems (also due to API 1130 2nd Ed.) like balancing systems (line balance, volume balance, compensated mass balance etc.), Real Time Transient Model LDS (RTTM-LDS), pressure/flow monitoring and statistical analysis LDS. Different methods for leak locating (gradient intersection method, wave propagation analysis etc.) will also be shown. The presentation of an Extended RTTM approach (E-RTTM) combining advantages of conventional RTTM LDS and statistical analysis follows next, together with the demonstration of applicability by means of two examples, a liquid multi-batch pipeline, and a gas pipeline. Sketching future work and the conclusion conclude the survey.