Fuel cell performance

Developing a detailed functional map of the inner workings of a fuel cell could help make future devices more efficient and longer lasting.

Dr Anthony Kucernak, a reader in physical chemistry at

, is leading research that will use sensors built into a working fuel cell to study how levels of reactants, products, pressure, heat and electrical chemical potential vary under a variety of conditions.

'Macroscopically, fuel cells look like a two-terminal power device that you put air and fuel in and electrical power comes out,' he said. 'What actually happens inside a fuel cell is more complicated than that. The fuel and air gets depleted as it flows through the paths within the fuel cell and the amount of reaction and where it occurs within the fuel cell is not uniform.'

The key variables that the researchers will measure are temperature, electrical potential, electrical flow, pressure, humidity and conductivity, including contact resistance between the fuel-cell electrode and the electrical contact that takes the current away.