Photograph that is slightly blurry of Helen Snapp in uniform sitting at a table, with her gold medal seen to the right. Two young women can be seen standing behind her. Handwritten notes on the back of the photo read, "From Left standing Samantha Thomason and Callie Thomason, Helen Snapp, July 10, 2010" and " AFA FL Convention dinner Ft Lauderdale, Fl."

Under sub-freezing conditions, ice forms in the gas-diffusion layer (GDL) of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) drastically reducing cell performance. Although a number of strategies exist to prevent ice formation, there is little fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of freezing within PEMFC components. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used to elucidate the effects of hydrophobicity (Teflon® loading) and water saturation on the rate of ice formation within three commercial GDLs. We find that as the Teflon® loading increases, the crystallization temperature decreases due to a change in internal ice/substrate contact angle, as well as the attainable level of water saturation. Classical nucleation theory predicts the correct trend in freezing temperature with Teflon® loading.

Although preliminary proof-of-principle of the efficacy of barrier materials and processes, first developed by Battelle at PNNL and commercialized by Vitex, has been demonstrated at the laboratory scale, there are several challenges to the practical commercial implementation of these developments in the Buildings Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) market. Two important issues that are addressed in this project are identifying a low cost substrate material that can survive in the outside environment (rain, heat, dust, hail, etc.) for 25 years and developing an encapsulation method for the photovoltaic (PV) cells that can meet the required barrier performance without driving the cost of the total barrier package out of range (remaining below $3.00/Wp). Without these solutions, current encapsulation technologies will limit the use of PV for BIPV applications. Flexible, light-weight packaging that can withstand 25 years in the field is required for a totally flexible integrated PV package. The benefit of this research is to make substantial progress in the development of a cost-effective, viable thin film barrier package which will be a critical enabling technology to meet the Solar America Initiative cost and device reliability goals, and to make photovoltaics (PV) more cost-competitive with electricity generated using fossil fuels. Increased PV installations …

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