A unitized regenerative fuel cell(URFC)is a device that may function reversibly as either a fuel cell(FC)or water elec-trolysis(WE).An important component of this device is the Membrane electrode assembly(MEA).Therefo...A unitized regenerative fuel cell(URFC)is a device that may function reversibly as either a fuel cell(FC)or water elec-trolysis(WE).An important component of this device is the Membrane electrode assembly(MEA).Therefore,this study aimed to compare the performance outcomes of MEA using electrodes with single and three catalyst layers.This study measured Electrochemical Surface Area(ECSA),Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy(EIS),X-ray Diffraction analysis(XRD),and X-ray Fluorescence(XRF).Furthermore,the round-trip efficiency(RTE)of the MEA,as w ell as the performance in FC and WE mode,was measured.In comparison,The ECSA values of Pt-Ru/C and Pt/C with three catalyst layers were higher than the single catalyst layer.This result was supported by electrode characterization data for XRD and XRF.The respective electrical conductivity values of Pt-Ru/C and Pt/C with three catalyst layers are also higher than the single cata-lyst layer,and the performance of URFC using MEA with three catalyst layers has the highest value of RTE among the MEA performances of URFC,which is 100%at a current density of 4 mA·cm-2.展开更多
Anion exchange membrane fuel cells(AEMFCs)are considered a more affordable technology compared to proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs),but the performance and durability of AEMFCs are still not competent with P...Anion exchange membrane fuel cells(AEMFCs)are considered a more affordable technology compared to proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs),but the performance and durability of AEMFCs are still not competent with PEMFCs owing to the more challenging water management,which severely hinders its development and real-life applications.In this study,we introduce the strategy to boost the performance and stability of the membrane electrode assembly(MEA)of AEMFCs by regulating the hydrophilicity of the anode and cathode ionomers.Two poly(biphenyl alkylene)ionomers with different hydrophilicity are synthesized and used to fabricate MEAs with asymmetric or symmetric ionomer configurations in the anodic and cathodic catalyst layers(CLs)for AEMFCs.Molecular dynamics(MD)simulations have revealed different diffusion rates of water in the hydrophobic anode and the hydrophilic cathode,which show the potential of this design to improve water management in AEMFCs,The effectiveness of this design is also confirmed by experimental results that the MEA with this asymmetric configuration exhibits the highest power and current densities of 1.58 W cm^(-2)or 5.58 A cm^(-2),respectively,among all configurations.Furthermore,this configuration also enhances the durability,with the MEA showing a voltage decay rate of only 313.1μV h^(-1)after 500 h of in-situ durability test at 0.2 A cm^(-2).This study provides new insights into the rational design of more efficient water management in MEA for high-performance AEMFCs.展开更多
A fuel cell is an energy conversion device that can continuously input fuel and oxidant into the device through an electrochemical reaction to release electrical energy.Although noble metals show good activity in fuel...A fuel cell is an energy conversion device that can continuously input fuel and oxidant into the device through an electrochemical reaction to release electrical energy.Although noble metals show good activity in fuel cell-related electrochemical reactions,their ever-increasing price considerably hinders their industrial application.Improvement of atom utilization efficiency is considered one of the most effective strategies to improve the mass activity of catalysts,and this allows for the use of fewer catalysts,saving greatly on the cost.Thus,single-atom catalysts(SACs)with an atom utilization efficiency of 100%have been widely developed,which show remarkable performance in fuel cells.In this review,we will describe recent progress on the development of SACs for membrane electrode assembly of fuel cell applications.First,we will introduce several effective routes for the synthesis of SACs.The reaction mechanism of the involved reactions will also be introduced as it is highly determinant of the final activity.Then,we will systematically summarize the application of Pt group metal(PGM)and nonprecious group metal(non-PGM)catalysts in membrane electrode assembly of fuel cells.This review will offer numerous experiences for developing potential industrialized fuel cell catalysts in the future.展开更多
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs)are considered as a promising renewable power source.However,the massive commercial application of PEMFCs has been greatly hindered by their high expense and less-satisfied p...Proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs)are considered as a promising renewable power source.However,the massive commercial application of PEMFCs has been greatly hindered by their high expense and less-satisfied performance mainly due to the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)kinetics even on state-of-the-art Pt catalyst.Octahedral PtNi nanoparticles(oct-PtNi NPs)with excellent ORR activity in a half-cell have been widely studied,while their performance in membrane electrode assembly(MEA)has much less reported.Herein,we investigated the MEA performance using the carbon supported oct-PtNi NPs(oct-PtNi/C)as the cathode catalyst.Under the mild acid washing condition,the surface Ni atoms of oct-PtNi/C were largely removed,and the performance of the MEA using the acid-leaching oct-PtNi/C(PNC-A)as the cathode catalyst was greatly improved.The maximum power density of the MEA reached 1.0 W·cm^(-2) with the cath-ode Pt loading of 0.2 mg·cm^(-2),which is 15%higher than that using Pt/C as the catalyst.After 30k cycles in the accelerated degradation test(ADT),the MEA using PNC-A as the catalyst showed a performance retention of 82%,higher than that of Pt/C(74%).The results reported here verify the possibility of using PNC-A as an advanced cathode catalyst in PEMFCs,thus enhancing the performance of PEMFCs while lowering the amount of expensive Pt.展开更多
This paper presents the sequence of activities to improve the thermal hydraulic analysis of the IEA-R1 research reactor to operate in safe conditions after power upgrade from 2 to 5 MW and core size reduction from 30 ...This paper presents the sequence of activities to improve the thermal hydraulic analysis of the IEA-R1 research reactor to operate in safe conditions after power upgrade from 2 to 5 MW and core size reduction from 30 to 24 fuel assemblies. A realistic analysis needs the knowledge of the actual operation conditions (heat flow, flow rates) beyond the geometric data and the uncertainties associated with manufacturing and measures. A dummy fuel assembly was designed and constructed to measure the actual flow rate through the core fuel assemblies and its pressure drop. First results showed that the flow distribution over the core is nearly uniform. Nevertheless, the values are below than the calculated ones and the core bypass flow rate is greater than those estimated previously. Based on this, several activities were performed to identify and reduce the bypass flow, such as reduction of the flow rate through the sample irradiators, closing some unnecessary secondary holes on the matrix plate, improvement in the primary flow rate system and better fit of the core components on the matrix plate. A sub-aquatic visual system was used as an important tool to detect some bypass flow path. After these modifications, the fuel assemblies flow rate increased about 13%. Additional tests using the dummy fuel assembly were carried out to measure the internal flow distribution among the rectangular channels. The results showed that the flow rate through the outer channels is 10% - 15% lower than the internal ones. The flow rate in the channel formed between two adjacent fuel assemblies is an estimated parameter and it is difficult to measure because this is an open channel. A new thermal hydraulic analysis of the outermost plates of the fuel assemblies takes into account all this information. Then, a fuel design modification was proposed with the reduction of 50% in the uranium quantity in the outermost fuel plates. In order to avoid the oxidation of the outermost plates by high temperature, low flow rate, a reduction of 50% in the uranium density in the same ones was shown to be adequate to solve the problem.展开更多
As a potential candidate for generation IV reactors, lead-alloy cooled reactor has attracted much attentions in recent years. The China LEAd-based research Reactor(CLEAR) is proposed as the primary choice for the acce...As a potential candidate for generation IV reactors, lead-alloy cooled reactor has attracted much attentions in recent years. The China LEAd-based research Reactor(CLEAR) is proposed as the primary choice for the accelerator driven subcritical system project launched by Chinese Academy of Sciences. Lead-bismuth eutectic(LBE) is selected as the coolant of CLEAR owing to its efficient heat conductivity properties and high production rate of neutrons. In order to compensate the buoyancy due to the high density of lead-alloy, fixation methods of fuel assembly(FA) have become a research hotspot worldwide. In this paper, we report an integrated system of ballast and fuel element for CLEAR FA. It guarantees the correct positioning of each FA in normal and refueling operations. Force calculation and temperature analysis prove that the FA will be stable and safe under CLEAR operation conditions.展开更多
Proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC)is of paramount significance to the development of clean energy.The components of PEMFC are assembled using many pairs of nuts and bolts.The assembly champing bolt torque is cr...Proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC)is of paramount significance to the development of clean energy.The components of PEMFC are assembled using many pairs of nuts and bolts.The assembly champing bolt torque is critical to the electrochemical performance and mechanical stability of PEMFC.In this paper,a PEMFC with the threechannel serpentine flow field was used and studied.The different assembly clamping bolt torques were applied to the PEMFC in three uniform assembly bolt torque and six non-uniform assembly bolt torque conditions,respectively.And then,the electrochemical performance experiments were performed to study the effect of the assembly bolt torque on the electrochemical performance.The test results show that the assembly bolt torque significantly affected the electrochemical performance of the PEMFC.In uniform assembly bolt torque conditions,the maximal power density increased initially as the assembly bolt torque increased,and then decreased on further increasing the assembly torque.It existed the optimum assembly torque which was found to be 3.0 N·m in this work.In non-uniform assembly clamping bolt torque conditions,the optimum electrochemical performance appeared in the condition where the assembly torque of each bolt was closer to be 3.0 N·m.This could be due to the change of the contact resistance between the gas diffusion layer and bipolar plate and mass transport resistance for the hydrogen and oxygen towards the catalyst layers.This work could optimize the assembly force conditions and provide useful information for the practical PEMFC stack assembly.展开更多
Different types of ABPBI (poly(2,5-benzimidazole)) membranes and polymer binders were evaluated to investigate the performance of MEAs for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC). The properties...Different types of ABPBI (poly(2,5-benzimidazole)) membranes and polymer binders were evaluated to investigate the performance of MEAs for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC). The properties of the prepared MEAs were evaluated and analyzed by polarization curve, electrochemistry impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and durability test. The results showed that MEA with modified ABPBI membrane (AM) has satisfactory performance and durability for fuel cell application. Compare to conventional PBI or Nafion binders, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) are more attractive as binders in the catalyst layer (CL) of gas diffusion electrode (GDE) for HT-PEMFC.展开更多
The present work aims to evaluate the increase in the number of spot welds in the 16 × 16 type fuel assembly structure that connects guide thimbles and spacer grids, in order to provide a proper joint for this co...The present work aims to evaluate the increase in the number of spot welds in the 16 × 16 type fuel assembly structure that connects guide thimbles and spacer grids, in order to provide a proper joint for this connection. This new and improved process can provide more stiffness to the whole structure, since the number of spots raised from four to eight. A 3-D geometric model of a guide thimble section was generated in a CAD （computer aided design） program （SolidWorks）. After that, the geometric model was imported to a CAE （computer aided engineering） program （ANSYS Mechanical APDL, Release 14.0）, where the finite element model was built, considering the guide thimble geometry assembled with the spacer grid through the welded connections. Boundaries conditions were implemented in the model in order to simulate the correct physical behavior due to the operation of the fuel assembly inside the reactor. The analysis covered specific loads and displacements acting on the entire structure. The method used to solve this finite element analysis was a linear static simulation in order to perform the connection between a spacer grid cell and a guide thimble section. Hence, four models was evaluated, differing on the spot weld number in the spacer grid and guide thimble connection. The rotational stiffness results of each model were compared. The results acquired from four and eight spot weld were validated with physical test results. The behavior of the structure under the acting force/displacement and the related results of the analysis, mainly the stiffness, were satisfied. The results of this analysis were used to prove that the increasing spot welds number is an improvement in the dimensional stability when submitted to loads and displacements required on the fuel assembly design. This analysis aid to get more information of extreme importance such as, the pursuance to develop better manufacturing process and to improve the fuel assembly performance due to the increasing of the bum-up.展开更多
Understanding the degradation phenomenon of proton exchange membrane fuel cells under electrochemical cycling requires an analysis of the porous carbon support structure.Key factors contributing to this phenomenon inc...Understanding the degradation phenomenon of proton exchange membrane fuel cells under electrochemical cycling requires an analysis of the porous carbon support structure.Key factors contributing to this phenomenon include changes in the total porosity and viable surface area for electrochemical reactions.Electron tomography-based serial section imaging using focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy(FIB-SEM)can elucidate this phenomenon at a nanoscale resolution.However,this highresolution tomographic analysis requires a huge image dataset and manual inputs in rule-based workflows;these requirements are time-consuming and often cause experimental difficulties and unreliable interpretations.We propose a deep learning-empowered approach comprising a two-step automated process for image interpolation and semantic segmentation to address the practical issues encountered in FIB-SEM electron tomography.An optimally trained interpolation model can reduce the image data requirement by more than 95%to analyze the structural degradation of carbon supports after electrochemical cycling while maintaining the reliability obtained in conventional tomographic analysis with several hundred images.Because the subsequent image segmentation model excludes a complicated manual filtering process,the relevant structural parameters can be reliably measured without human bias.Our sparse-section imaging-based deep learning process can allow cost-efficient analysis and reliable measurement of the degree of cycling-induced carbon corrosion.展开更多
基金support from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia under grant HICOE-2023-005.
文摘A unitized regenerative fuel cell(URFC)is a device that may function reversibly as either a fuel cell(FC)or water elec-trolysis(WE).An important component of this device is the Membrane electrode assembly(MEA).Therefore,this study aimed to compare the performance outcomes of MEA using electrodes with single and three catalyst layers.This study measured Electrochemical Surface Area(ECSA),Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy(EIS),X-ray Diffraction analysis(XRD),and X-ray Fluorescence(XRF).Furthermore,the round-trip efficiency(RTE)of the MEA,as w ell as the performance in FC and WE mode,was measured.In comparison,The ECSA values of Pt-Ru/C and Pt/C with three catalyst layers were higher than the single catalyst layer.This result was supported by electrode characterization data for XRD and XRF.The respective electrical conductivity values of Pt-Ru/C and Pt/C with three catalyst layers are also higher than the single cata-lyst layer,and the performance of URFC using MEA with three catalyst layers has the highest value of RTE among the MEA performances of URFC,which is 100%at a current density of 4 mA·cm-2.
基金supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(No.2023YFB4004700)。
文摘Anion exchange membrane fuel cells(AEMFCs)are considered a more affordable technology compared to proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs),but the performance and durability of AEMFCs are still not competent with PEMFCs owing to the more challenging water management,which severely hinders its development and real-life applications.In this study,we introduce the strategy to boost the performance and stability of the membrane electrode assembly(MEA)of AEMFCs by regulating the hydrophilicity of the anode and cathode ionomers.Two poly(biphenyl alkylene)ionomers with different hydrophilicity are synthesized and used to fabricate MEAs with asymmetric or symmetric ionomer configurations in the anodic and cathodic catalyst layers(CLs)for AEMFCs.Molecular dynamics(MD)simulations have revealed different diffusion rates of water in the hydrophobic anode and the hydrophilic cathode,which show the potential of this design to improve water management in AEMFCs,The effectiveness of this design is also confirmed by experimental results that the MEA with this asymmetric configuration exhibits the highest power and current densities of 1.58 W cm^(-2)or 5.58 A cm^(-2),respectively,among all configurations.Furthermore,this configuration also enhances the durability,with the MEA showing a voltage decay rate of only 313.1μV h^(-1)after 500 h of in-situ durability test at 0.2 A cm^(-2).This study provides new insights into the rational design of more efficient water management in MEA for high-performance AEMFCs.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China,Grant/Award Numbers:22075203,22279079,21905179Guangdong Science and Technology Department Program,Grant/Award Number:2021QN02L252+1 种基金Shenzhen Science and Technology Department Program,Grant/Award Numbers:20220810133521001,20220809165014001Natural Science Foundation of SZU,Grant/Award Numbers:000002111605,000002112215。
文摘A fuel cell is an energy conversion device that can continuously input fuel and oxidant into the device through an electrochemical reaction to release electrical energy.Although noble metals show good activity in fuel cell-related electrochemical reactions,their ever-increasing price considerably hinders their industrial application.Improvement of atom utilization efficiency is considered one of the most effective strategies to improve the mass activity of catalysts,and this allows for the use of fewer catalysts,saving greatly on the cost.Thus,single-atom catalysts(SACs)with an atom utilization efficiency of 100%have been widely developed,which show remarkable performance in fuel cells.In this review,we will describe recent progress on the development of SACs for membrane electrode assembly of fuel cell applications.First,we will introduce several effective routes for the synthesis of SACs.The reaction mechanism of the involved reactions will also be introduced as it is highly determinant of the final activity.Then,we will systematically summarize the application of Pt group metal(PGM)and nonprecious group metal(non-PGM)catalysts in membrane electrode assembly of fuel cells.This review will offer numerous experiences for developing potential industrialized fuel cell catalysts in the future.
基金supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of China(22362031 and 21805121)the Science and Technology Project of Yunnan Province(2019FD137)。
文摘Proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs)are considered as a promising renewable power source.However,the massive commercial application of PEMFCs has been greatly hindered by their high expense and less-satisfied performance mainly due to the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)kinetics even on state-of-the-art Pt catalyst.Octahedral PtNi nanoparticles(oct-PtNi NPs)with excellent ORR activity in a half-cell have been widely studied,while their performance in membrane electrode assembly(MEA)has much less reported.Herein,we investigated the MEA performance using the carbon supported oct-PtNi NPs(oct-PtNi/C)as the cathode catalyst.Under the mild acid washing condition,the surface Ni atoms of oct-PtNi/C were largely removed,and the performance of the MEA using the acid-leaching oct-PtNi/C(PNC-A)as the cathode catalyst was greatly improved.The maximum power density of the MEA reached 1.0 W·cm^(-2) with the cath-ode Pt loading of 0.2 mg·cm^(-2),which is 15%higher than that using Pt/C as the catalyst.After 30k cycles in the accelerated degradation test(ADT),the MEA using PNC-A as the catalyst showed a performance retention of 82%,higher than that of Pt/C(74%).The results reported here verify the possibility of using PNC-A as an advanced cathode catalyst in PEMFCs,thus enhancing the performance of PEMFCs while lowering the amount of expensive Pt.
文摘This paper presents the sequence of activities to improve the thermal hydraulic analysis of the IEA-R1 research reactor to operate in safe conditions after power upgrade from 2 to 5 MW and core size reduction from 30 to 24 fuel assemblies. A realistic analysis needs the knowledge of the actual operation conditions (heat flow, flow rates) beyond the geometric data and the uncertainties associated with manufacturing and measures. A dummy fuel assembly was designed and constructed to measure the actual flow rate through the core fuel assemblies and its pressure drop. First results showed that the flow distribution over the core is nearly uniform. Nevertheless, the values are below than the calculated ones and the core bypass flow rate is greater than those estimated previously. Based on this, several activities were performed to identify and reduce the bypass flow, such as reduction of the flow rate through the sample irradiators, closing some unnecessary secondary holes on the matrix plate, improvement in the primary flow rate system and better fit of the core components on the matrix plate. A sub-aquatic visual system was used as an important tool to detect some bypass flow path. After these modifications, the fuel assemblies flow rate increased about 13%. Additional tests using the dummy fuel assembly were carried out to measure the internal flow distribution among the rectangular channels. The results showed that the flow rate through the outer channels is 10% - 15% lower than the internal ones. The flow rate in the channel formed between two adjacent fuel assemblies is an estimated parameter and it is difficult to measure because this is an open channel. A new thermal hydraulic analysis of the outermost plates of the fuel assemblies takes into account all this information. Then, a fuel design modification was proposed with the reduction of 50% in the uranium quantity in the outermost fuel plates. In order to avoid the oxidation of the outermost plates by high temperature, low flow rate, a reduction of 50% in the uranium density in the same ones was shown to be adequate to solve the problem.
基金Supported by the Strategic Priority Science&Technology Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.XDA03040000)
文摘As a potential candidate for generation IV reactors, lead-alloy cooled reactor has attracted much attentions in recent years. The China LEAd-based research Reactor(CLEAR) is proposed as the primary choice for the accelerator driven subcritical system project launched by Chinese Academy of Sciences. Lead-bismuth eutectic(LBE) is selected as the coolant of CLEAR owing to its efficient heat conductivity properties and high production rate of neutrons. In order to compensate the buoyancy due to the high density of lead-alloy, fixation methods of fuel assembly(FA) have become a research hotspot worldwide. In this paper, we report an integrated system of ballast and fuel element for CLEAR FA. It guarantees the correct positioning of each FA in normal and refueling operations. Force calculation and temperature analysis prove that the FA will be stable and safe under CLEAR operation conditions.
基金Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.52275152)。
文摘Proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC)is of paramount significance to the development of clean energy.The components of PEMFC are assembled using many pairs of nuts and bolts.The assembly champing bolt torque is critical to the electrochemical performance and mechanical stability of PEMFC.In this paper,a PEMFC with the threechannel serpentine flow field was used and studied.The different assembly clamping bolt torques were applied to the PEMFC in three uniform assembly bolt torque and six non-uniform assembly bolt torque conditions,respectively.And then,the electrochemical performance experiments were performed to study the effect of the assembly bolt torque on the electrochemical performance.The test results show that the assembly bolt torque significantly affected the electrochemical performance of the PEMFC.In uniform assembly bolt torque conditions,the maximal power density increased initially as the assembly bolt torque increased,and then decreased on further increasing the assembly torque.It existed the optimum assembly torque which was found to be 3.0 N·m in this work.In non-uniform assembly clamping bolt torque conditions,the optimum electrochemical performance appeared in the condition where the assembly torque of each bolt was closer to be 3.0 N·m.This could be due to the change of the contact resistance between the gas diffusion layer and bipolar plate and mass transport resistance for the hydrogen and oxygen towards the catalyst layers.This work could optimize the assembly force conditions and provide useful information for the practical PEMFC stack assembly.
文摘Different types of ABPBI (poly(2,5-benzimidazole)) membranes and polymer binders were evaluated to investigate the performance of MEAs for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC). The properties of the prepared MEAs were evaluated and analyzed by polarization curve, electrochemistry impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and durability test. The results showed that MEA with modified ABPBI membrane (AM) has satisfactory performance and durability for fuel cell application. Compare to conventional PBI or Nafion binders, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) are more attractive as binders in the catalyst layer (CL) of gas diffusion electrode (GDE) for HT-PEMFC.
文摘The present work aims to evaluate the increase in the number of spot welds in the 16 × 16 type fuel assembly structure that connects guide thimbles and spacer grids, in order to provide a proper joint for this connection. This new and improved process can provide more stiffness to the whole structure, since the number of spots raised from four to eight. A 3-D geometric model of a guide thimble section was generated in a CAD （computer aided design） program （SolidWorks）. After that, the geometric model was imported to a CAE （computer aided engineering） program （ANSYS Mechanical APDL, Release 14.0）, where the finite element model was built, considering the guide thimble geometry assembled with the spacer grid through the welded connections. Boundaries conditions were implemented in the model in order to simulate the correct physical behavior due to the operation of the fuel assembly inside the reactor. The analysis covered specific loads and displacements acting on the entire structure. The method used to solve this finite element analysis was a linear static simulation in order to perform the connection between a spacer grid cell and a guide thimble section. Hence, four models was evaluated, differing on the spot weld number in the spacer grid and guide thimble connection. The rotational stiffness results of each model were compared. The results acquired from four and eight spot weld were validated with physical test results. The behavior of the structure under the acting force/displacement and the related results of the analysis, mainly the stiffness, were satisfied. The results of this analysis were used to prove that the increasing spot welds number is an improvement in the dimensional stability when submitted to loads and displacements required on the fuel assembly design. This analysis aid to get more information of extreme importance such as, the pursuance to develop better manufacturing process and to improve the fuel assembly performance due to the increasing of the bum-up.
基金supported by the Technology Innovation Program(No.20011712)funded by the Ministry of Trade,Industry,and Energy(MOTIE,Korea)a National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)grant funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT(MSIT)(No.2022M3J1A108538),Korea+2 种基金the support of the Nano&Material Technology Development Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT(RS-2024-00444986,50%)the Institute for Basic Science(IBS-R036-D1)。
文摘Understanding the degradation phenomenon of proton exchange membrane fuel cells under electrochemical cycling requires an analysis of the porous carbon support structure.Key factors contributing to this phenomenon include changes in the total porosity and viable surface area for electrochemical reactions.Electron tomography-based serial section imaging using focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy(FIB-SEM)can elucidate this phenomenon at a nanoscale resolution.However,this highresolution tomographic analysis requires a huge image dataset and manual inputs in rule-based workflows;these requirements are time-consuming and often cause experimental difficulties and unreliable interpretations.We propose a deep learning-empowered approach comprising a two-step automated process for image interpolation and semantic segmentation to address the practical issues encountered in FIB-SEM electron tomography.An optimally trained interpolation model can reduce the image data requirement by more than 95%to analyze the structural degradation of carbon supports after electrochemical cycling while maintaining the reliability obtained in conventional tomographic analysis with several hundred images.Because the subsequent image segmentation model excludes a complicated manual filtering process,the relevant structural parameters can be reliably measured without human bias.Our sparse-section imaging-based deep learning process can allow cost-efficient analysis and reliable measurement of the degree of cycling-induced carbon corrosion.
