Investigation on water history using deuterium fuel cell

Koizumi, Satoshi; Putra, A.; Zhao, Y.; Noda, Yohei; Yamaguchi, Daisuke; Ueda, Satoru*; Gunji, Hiroyuki*; Eguchi, Mika*; Tsutsumi, Yasuyuki*

no journal, , 

In order to investigate water history during fuel cell operation, we employed deuterated gas (D) as a fuel (deuterium fuel cell). With exchange of H and D, we aim to perform a contrast variation as for polyelectrolyte film (Nafion). When D gas is used as a fuel, DO is produced at the cathode and diffuses back to the film. Then the film, originally swollen by HO, exhibits change of coherent scattering contrast. By changing a fuel gas from H to D, SANS quantitatively detected decrease of scattering intensity at scattering maximum originating from the ion-channel in the electrolyte. After quantitative analyses on scattering intensity, which is related to water ratio (HO/DO) in the ion channel, we could determine the water ration swelling a membrane.