This project will examine dimensional change at the electrode, electrolyte, gas diffusion layer, cell and stack level.
The project has delivered a controlled compression stack assembly that can be used by commercial stacks. The use of X-ray computed tomography has been demonstrated for examining the deformation of the fibres in gas diffusion layers when put under compression, while the quartz crystal microbalance was used to probe water uptake dynamics and associated membrane dimensional change.
Ongoing work is being undertaken to use neutron imaging to understand the role of water in determining dimensional change in components, and to use electrochemical atomic force microscopy to examine the effect of dimensional change induced by ionomer swelling in electrodes.
An extensive presentation on the project’s progress can be found here.