% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded.  This means that in the presence
% of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older.
% Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or
% “biber”.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Hilche:1048453,
      author       = {Hilche, Tobias and Fröhlich, Kristina and Karl, André and
                      Jodat, Eva and Eichel, Rüdiger-A.},
      title        = {{S}canning {E}lectrochemical {M}icroscopy {S}tudy on
                      {M}odel {E}x-situ {T}reatment of {MEA} {A}nodes for {PEM}
                      {W}ater {E}lectrolysis},
      reportid     = {FZJ-2025-04659},
      year         = {2025},
      abstract     = {Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolysis[1] is
                      a key technology for sustainable hydrogen production as a
                      resource and for energy storage at industrial scale. The
                      central component of PEM water electrolyzers is the membrane
                      electrode assembly (MEA), which defines the performance
                      efficiency and lifetime of the electrolysis cell from an
                      electrochemical perspective. A typical approach to the
                      assessment of MEA durability is the accelerated stress test
                      (AST).[2] ASTs have been established as a short time
                      approximation to the degradation process of MEAs under
                      realistic operating conditions. However, by nature of design
                      the impact of different stressors in early, mid and late
                      stages of operation cannot be evaluated individually.
                      Furthermore, any AST can only deliver valid information
                      within its own standardized testing environment.[3]To
                      address this issue, our group is investigating isolated
                      parameters in-situ, i.e. in a PEM water electrolysis cell
                      setup,[4] as well as ex-situ, where the catalyst layer (CL)
                      electrodes of an MEA are applied in a conventional 3- or
                      4-electrode electrochemical setup. Ex-situ, the
                      electrochemical performance efficiency of a CL can be
                      investigated based on preceding treatment. In this context
                      cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and
                      electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) can provide
                      valuable information about the catalytic activity, kinetics
                      and electrochemically active surface area, and scanning
                      electrochemical microscopy (SECM)[5] – as an
                      electrochemical imaging technique – gives insight into the
                      homogeneity of the active surface.In our study, we present
                      the results of the effect of different conditioning
                      procedures on the electrochemical performance of commercial
                      MEAs. We investigated combinations of activation through
                      potential cycling with chemical, potentiostatic and
                      potentiodynamic conditioning protocols at Ir based anodes.
                      The electrochemical characterization on the conditioned
                      anodes showed that the potentiostatic MEA conditioning has a
                      positive impact on the anode impedance and SECM tip feedback
                      response. The focus will be on local properties obtained
                      from SECM experiments.Funding: This work was financially
                      supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und
                      Forschung (BMBF): Wasserstoff - Leitprojekt H2Giga,
                      Teilvorhaben DERIEL (project number 03HY122C), SEGIWA
                      (project number 03HY121B).[1] A. S. Aricò, S. Siracusano,
                      N. Briguglio, V. Baglio, A. Di Blasi, V. Antonucci, J. Appl.
                      Electrochem. 2013, 43, 107.[2] E. Kuhnert, V. Hacker, M.
                      Bodner, Int. J. Energy Res. 2023, 2023, 1.[3] P. Aßmann, A.
                      S. Gago, P. Gazdzicki, K. A. Friedrich, M. Wark, Curr. Opin.
                      Electrochem. 2020, 21, 225.[4] N. Wolf, A. Javed, L.
                      Treutlein, H. Kungl, A. Karl, E. Jodat, R.-A. Eichel,
                      Electrochem. Sci. Adv. 2025, 0:e202400038.[5] D. Polcari, P.
                      Dauphin-Ducharme, J. Mauzeroll, Chem. Rev. 2016, 116,
                      13234.},
      month         = {Sep},
      date          = {2025-09-07},
      organization  = {76th Annual Meeting of the
                       International Society of
                       Electrochemistry, Mainz (Germany), 7
                       Sep 2025 - 12 Sep 2025},
      subtyp        = {After Call},
      cin          = {IET-1},
      cid          = {I:(DE-Juel1)IET-1-20110218},
      pnm          = {1231 - Electrochemistry for Hydrogen (POF4-123)},
      pid          = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-1231},
      typ          = {PUB:(DE-HGF)24},
      url          = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1048453},
}