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McLeod, Alexander

University of British Columbia

Among potentially greener energy alternatives, hydrogen produced by water electrolysis has been shown to be a scalable and transportable energy carrier. Electrolysis systems will require improvements in efficiency and lifetime to be as economical as carbon-fueled production methods. The present work reports on the first in-situ measurements from a micro-platinum wire used in an electrolysis cell over 1000 hours of operation to collect continuous half-cell voltage measurements, half-cell polarization curves and half-cell electrochemical impedance spectra. This configuration utilizes the micro-platinum wire as a dynamic hydrogen reference electrode. These findings are combined with post-mortem imaging on critical components. The reference electrode measurements indicate that the anode voltage increase is primarily responsible for the full-cell degradation rate of 77 μV/hr. The half-cell electron impedance spectroscopy measurements and transmission electron microscopy images of the spent catalyst, showed changes to the surface of the cathode catalyst, albeit with little effect on the overall cell performance. Based on these findings, this thesis proposes pathways for future work to advance cell degradation research, and possible design improvements.

Text

2025-06-27

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91466

Mechanical Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/