%0 Journal Article %K modeling %K cathode %K agglomerate %K double trap kinetics %K oxygen reduction reaction %A Lalit M Pant %A Adam Z Weber %B Journal of The Electrochemical Society %D 2017 %G eng %N 11 %P E3102 - E3104 %R 10.1149/2.0111711jes %T Communication—Modeling Polymer-Electrolyte Fuel-Cell Agglomerates with Double-Trap Kinetics %V 164 %8 04/2017 %! J. Electrochem. Soc. %X

A new semi-analytical agglomerate model is presented for polymer-electrolyte fuel-cell cathodes. The model uses double-trap kinetics for the oxygen-reduction reaction, which can capture the observed potential-dependent coverage and Tafel-slope changes. An iterative semi-analytical approach is used to obtain reaction rate constants from the double-trap kinetics, oxygen concentration at the agglomerate surface, and overall agglomerate reaction rate. The analytical method can predict reaction rates within 2% of the numerically simulated values for a wide range of oxygen concentrations, overpotentials, and agglomerate sizes, while saving simulation time compared to a fully numerical approach.