DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS FOR IN-SITU AND EX-SITU INVESTIGATIONS OF FUEL CELLS AND COMPONENTS AT THE GERMAN AEROSPACE CENTER

The analysis of the processes in fuel cells like the degradation and the alteration during start-up processes and the analysis of fuel cell components especially of the electrodes and their components is a main topic at the DLR. For this purpose physical and electroche¬mical methods are used individually and combined. In this paper different example of applications of studies performed at DLR using different methods in combination will be presented. The examples in the field of low temperature fuel cells - alkaline fuel cells, polymer electrolyte fuel cells and direct methanol fuel cells – are mainly focused on the alteration of the electrodes due to electrochemical loading; for SOFC an example for the investi¬ga¬tion of the local operating conditions is given