EIS Advantages

It has been demonstrated that EIS can serve as a standard analytical diagnostic tool in the evaluation and characterization of fuel cells. Scientists and engineers have now realized that the entire frequency response spectrum can provide useful data on non-Faradaic mechanisms, water management, ohmic losses, and the ionic conductivity of proton exchange membranes. EIS can help to identify contributors to PEMFC performance. It also provides useful information for fuel cell optimization and for down-selection of the most appropriate operating conditions. In addition, EIS can assist in identifying problems or predicting the likelihood of failure within fuel cell components. 

Separation of the individual contributors can provide useful information about performance optimization for fuel cells, helping to optimize MEA components, including catalyst layers (e.g., catalyst loading, Nafion content, and PTFE content), gas diffusion layers, and membranes. It assists in the down-selection of catalysts, composite structure, and MEA fabrication methods. It also helps in selecting the most appropriate operating conditions, including humidification, temperature, back-pressure, and reactant flow rates. 

Performing EIS on fuel cells can help to identify potential problems or failures within the cell, such as catalyst coarsening, membrane degradation, bipolar plate corrosion, gas diffusion layer oxidation, and incorrect operating conditions. 

Identifying these problems helps to optimize the cell operating conditions, and to avoid fuel cell performance failure or even collapse. 

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