Redondo: Advances in solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell technology with low platinum loading electrodes, J. Wang: Fundamental models for fuel cell engineering, Chem. Fenton: Effect of elevated temperature and reduced relative humidity on ORR kinetics for PEM fuel cells, J. Prentice: Electrochemical Engineering Principles (Prentice Hall, New Jersey 1991) Fenton: Analysis of polarization curves to evaluate polarization sources in hydrogen/Air PEM fuel cells, J. Mathias (Eds.): Proceedings of the International Symposium PV 2002-31 (The Electrochemical Society, Pennington 2005) Hoogers: Fuel Cell Technology Handbook (CRC, Roca Baton 2002)
While the lessons are relevant to all electrochemical systems, this chapter is primarily targeted at new entrants into this arena wishing to learn the basics of fuel cell operation and testing. Methods are also given for the practical measurement of relevant items from cell assembly and cell pinch to relative humidity. Topics covered include experiments showing how fuel cell performance varies with test conditions, methodology to fit experimental data to a simple empirical model to extract physically meaningful parameters that govern fuel cell performance, impedance spectroscopy as a diagnostic for fuel cell performance, and data analyses methods to determine the performance of fuel cells. This chapter takes the fundamental principles of fuel cell operation and the underlying scientific and engineering principles and applies them to laboratory experiments. The practical application of theory to experiment and data analysis is a crucial component of effective advancement of electrochemical systems.