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Polymer Electrolyte (PE) Fuel Cell Systems

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Production

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  • Originally published in
  • R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2017

Glossary

Fuel Cells (FC):

Electrochemical cells that convert chemical energy from a fuel into electrical energy through the controlled transfer of electrical charge driven by the difference in electrochemical potential between two electrodes separated by an electrolyte.

Electrocatalyst:

A material that enhances the rate of an electrochemical reaction, such as the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) or the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), without itself being consumed in the reaction. In most PEM fuel cells, the electrocatalysts are nanosized materials made from the precious group metals (PGM), usually platinum, palladium, and ruthenium or alloys of these materials with nickel, cobalt, and manganese.

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM):

Cation- or anion-conducting polymer membrane that separates the two electrodes in a fuel cell. In most PEM fuel cells, the polymer is a cation (proton) conductor and in this case PEM can stand for proton exchange membrane.

Triple-Phase Boundary (TPB):
...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sustainable-Systems, LLC, Latham, NY, USA

    John F. Elter

  2. Nanoscale Engineering, College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering SUNY Albany, Albany, NY, USA

    John F. Elter

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  1. John F. Elter
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. TSRC, University of California Berkeley TSRC, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Timothy E. Lipman

  2. Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab., Berkeley, CA, USA

    Adam Z. Weber

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Elter, J.F. (2019). Polymer Electrolyte (PE) Fuel Cell Systems. In: Lipman, T., Weber, A. (eds) Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Production. Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7789-5_149

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