Facilities

The Fuel Cell Materials & Manufacturing Laboratory

Lab

Our lab is located in rooms 312 and 314 of the Haultain Building at the University of Toronto. We also have access to facilities at the Centre for Advanced Coating Technologies, where our plasma spray system is located.

Fuel cell test stations

Fuel Cell Test Stations are utilized to provide electrical contact at high temperatures to test cells and to control the flow of reactant gases and humidity to fuel cells in order to characterize their performance and durability.

Electrochemical measurements

Potentiostat and Frequency Response Analyzer (FRA) are utilized to characterize the electrochemical performance of the fuel cells in both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) conditions. The potentiostat provides information on the power density, voltage, and current that can be attained by a fuel cell. The FRA provides information on processes that take place in the fuel cell at different time scales, thereby allowing various contributions to the overall performance to be studied, such as reaction kinetics, ohmic losses, and diffusion losses.

Mass Spectrometer

A mass spectrometer and carbon monoxide analyser are used to determine the composition of the effluents from the fuel cell electrodes.

TGA

Thermogravimetric Analysis, or TGA, is used to determine mass changes when a material is heated in controlled atmospheres. The information can be utilized to study the oxidation behaviour of metals, alloys, and non-stoichiometric ceramics, burnout temperatures of fugitive organic phases, and reducing behaviour of oxides.

Furnaces

High and low-temperature furnaces and hotplates are used for controlled heating of specimens, with tube furnaces allowing the additional option of heating the materials under controlled atmospheres.

Particle size analyser

A Particle Size Analyzer (PSA) uses laser light scattering to determine the particle size distribution of powders used in the fabrication of fuel cells.

Mill

A rolling mill and sieve shaker are used to process powder feedstock for the manufacture of ceramics, metals, and cermets.

Leak Tester

Leak testing apparatus is used to determine the flow rate of gas passing through a porous solid as a function of applied pressure differential across the solid.

Dip Coater - Spin Coater

A dip coater and spin coater are used to fabricate thin films and coatings of sol-gel based ceramics.

The Hogs

Three workstations are used primarily for multiphysics modeling, CAD, and response surface modeling.