Impedance of the Hydrogen Polymer Fuel Cell Electrode. Theory and Experiments

Abstract

We derive the impedance for the hydrogen electrode in the polymer membrane fuel cell from irreversible thermodynamics. The results predict a surface contribution to the cell impedance that can give two semi-circles in the Nyquist diagram. The equivalent circuit of the impedance is shown. The high-frequency contribution is connected to the oscillation of dipoles consisting of free charges in the surface, while the low-frequency contribution is connected to the electrochemical reaction. This can be explained by a slowly relaxing proton conducting polymer network at the reaction site.