A soldagem a ponto por resistência é o processo mais usado na montagem de estruturas, tais como: automóveis, caminhões, aviões, vagões de trem, etc. Como exemplo, na montagem das carrocerias de automóveis são necessários em média 5.000 pontos de solda. Segundo a ANFAVEA a produção em 2010 no Brasil ultrapassou 3,5 milhões de automóveis, ou seja, aproximadamente 17,5 bilhões de pontos de solda por ano. Estes fatos evidenciam a importância deste processo de soldagem na montagem de carroceria devido a sua eficiência, rapidez e facilidade na automação. Além disso, o comportamento da soldagem a ponto por resistência é extremamente importante para a qualidade de toda a estrutura soldada. O presente trabalho será voltado para a avaliação e estudo da soldabilidade de chapas de aço de 0,8 mm, revestidas e não revestidas com zinco, na indústria automotiva, comparando-se dois equipamentos de soldagem com dois tipos de corrente de soldagem: corrente alternada (CA) e corrente contínua de média freqüência (CC). Foram feitos diagramas de soldabilidade: corrente (kA) x tempo (ms) com força constante e corrente (kA) x força (kgf) com tempo (s) de soldagem constante e localizada suas respectivas áreas comuns. Em seguida foram feitos diagramas em terceira dimensão (3D) com os três principais parâmetros (força, corrente e tempo) e localizado um ponto otimizado. Posteriormente foram analisadas, nos pontos otimizados, as dimensões geométricas do ponto através da macrografia, a resistência mecânica com ensaio de tração e, durante a soldagem, a resistência dinâmica e a energia elétrica dinâmica. Foram seguidos como requisitos técnicos para qualificação de soldagem conforme norma. Os resultados mostraram que, a soldagem em CC apresentou-se melhor em chapas sem revestimento se comparada com a soldagem em CA. E a soldagem em CA apresentou-se melhor em chapas com revestimento de zinco se comparada com a soldagem em CC. A queima do revestimento de zinco e a rugosidade superficial das chapas não afetaram a formação do ponto de solda. As durezas nas regiões da ZAC e no ponto de solda apresentaram-se maiores em chapas sem revestimento. Todos os pontos de solda com os parâmetros otimizados, encontrados pelo método apresentado neste trabalho, foram aprovados conforme norma. / Resistance spot welding is highly used in the structures assembly, such as: cars, trucks, planes, trains, etc. For example, 5.000 weld spots are necessary in an auto-body assembly. According to ANFAVEA, Brazilian production in 2010 overtook 3.5 millions of cars, in order words, around 17,5 billions weld spot per year. This fact evidences the importance of this welding process due to its efficiency, rapidity and easiness in the automation. Moreover, the resistance spot welding behavior is highly important for all the welded structure quality. This work aimed to study the weldability of zinc non-coated and zinc coated steel sheets of 0,8 mm thickness for automotive industry, comparing two welding equipments with two kinds of current: alternating current (AC) and medium frequency direct current (DC). The weld lobes are presented: current (kA) x time (s) with constant force (kgf) and current (kA) x force (kgf) with constant welding time. After, lobes in third dimension (3D) with the three main parameters were done (force, current and time) and located the great point. Afterwards, the great points were characterized using, optic metallografly, mechanical resistance with tensile-shear test and, during welding, the dynamic resistance and dynamic energy. The describe techniques were followed as technical requisites according to the standard. The results showed that the welding in DC presented better performance in uncoated sheets when compared to the AC welding. And the AC welding presented better performance in zinc coated sheets when compared to DC welding. Zinc coating burning and sheets surface roughness did not affect the spot weld formation. The hardness in the HAZ regions and in the spot weld was higher in uncoated sheets. All spot welds with the optimized parameters, found by the method presented in this work, were approved according to the standard.

Nowadays numerical simulations are used to optimize manufacturing process. These numerical simulations need a large amount of input parameters and some of these parameters have not been sufficiently described. One of this parameter is thermal contact resistance, which is not sufficiently described for high temperatures and high contact pressure. This work describes experimental measuring of thermal contact resistance and how to determine thermal contact conductance which can be used as a boundary condition for numerical simulations. An Experimental device was built in Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Laboratory, part of Brno University of Technology, and can be used for measuring thermal contact conductance in various conditions, such as contact pressure, initial temperatures of bodies in contact, type of material, surface roughness, presence of scales on the contact surface. Bodies in contact are marked as a sensor and a sample, both are embedded with thermocouples. The temperature history of bodies during an experiment is measured by thermocouples and then used to estimate time dependent values of thermal contact conductance by an inverse heat conduction calculation. Results are summarized and the dependence of thermal contact conductance in various conditions is described.

Anyone who decides to buy a new mobile phone today is likely to buy a screen made from organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). OLEDs are a relatively new display technology and will probably account for the largest market share in the upcoming years. This is due to their brilliant colors, high achievable display resolution, and comparably simple processing. Since they are not based on the rigid crystal structure of classical semiconductors and can be produced as planar thin-film modules, they also enable the fabrication of large-area lamps on flexible substrates – an attractive scenario for future lighting systems. Despite these promising properties, the breakthrough of OLED lighting technology is still pending and requires further research. The charge-carrier dynamics in an OLED determine its device functionality and, therefore, enable the understanding of fundamental physical concepts and phenomena. From the description of charge-carrier dynamics, this work derives experimental methods and device concepts to optimize the efficiency and stability of OLEDs. OLEDs feature an electric current of charge carriers (electrons and holes) that are intended to recombine under the emission of light. This process is preceded by charge-carrier injection and their transport to the emission layer. These three aspects are discussed together in this work. First, a method is presented that quantifies injection resistances using a simple experiment. It provides a valuable opportunity to better understand and optimize injection layers. Subsequently, the charge carrier transport at high electrical currents, as required for OLEDs as bright lighting elements, will be investigated. Here, electro-thermal effects are presented that form physical limits for the design and function of OLED modules and explain their sudden failure. Finally, the dynamics and recombination of electro-statically bound charge carrier pairs, so-called excitons, are examined. Various options are presented for manipulating exciton dynamics in such a way that the emission behavior of the OLED can be adjusted according to specific requirements.:List of publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v List of abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1 Light sources and the human society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1.1 Human light perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.1.2 Physical light quantification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.1.3 Non-visual light impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.1.4 Implications for modern light sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.2 Organic semiconductors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.2.1 Molecular energy states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.2.2 Intramolecular state transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2.2.3 Molecular films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.2.4 Electrical doping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 2.2.5 Charge-carrier transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 2.2.6 Exciton formation and recombination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 2.2.7 Exciton transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.3 Organic light-emitting diodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.3.1 Structure and operation principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.3.2 Metal-semiconductor interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 2.3.3 Typical operation characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 2.4 Colloidal nanocrystal emitters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 2.4.1 Terminology: Nanocrystals and quantum dots . . . . . . . . 52 2.4.2 The particle-in-a-box model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 2.4.3 Surface passivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.1 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.1.1 OLED materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.1.2 Materials for photoluminescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.2 Sample preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 3.2.1 Thermal evaporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 3.2.2 Solution processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 3.3 Spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 3.3.1 Absorbance spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 3.3.2 Photoluminescence quantum yield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 3.3.3 Excitation sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3.3.4 Sensitive EQE for absorber materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 3.4 Exciton-lifetime analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.4.1 Triplet lifetime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.4.2 Singlet-state lifetime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 3.4.3 Lifetime extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 3.5 OLED characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 3.5.1 Current-voltage-luminance and quantum efficiency . . . . . . 73 3.5.2 Temperature-controlled evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4 Charge-carrier injection into doped organic films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 4.1 Ohmic injection contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 4.2 Device architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 4.2.1 Conception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 4.2.2 Device symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 4.2.3 Device homogeneity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 4.3 Resistance characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 4.3.1 Experimental results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 4.3.2 Equivalent-circuit development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4.4 Impedance spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 4.4.1 Measurement fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 4.4.2 Thickness dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 4.4.3 Temperature dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 4.5 Depletion zone variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 4.6 Molybdenum oxide as a case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 5 Charge-carrier transport and self-heating in OLED lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 5.1 Joule self-heating in OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 5.1.1 Electrothermal feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 5.1.2 Thermistors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 5.1.3 Cooling strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 5.2 Self-heating causes lateral luminance inhomogeneities in OLEDs . . 108 5.2.1 The influence of transparent electrodes . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 5.2.2 Luminance inhomogeneities in large OLED panels . . . . . . 110 5.3 Electrothermal OLED models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 5.3.1 Perceiving an OLED as thermistor array . . . . . . . . . . . 112 5.3.2 The OLED as a single three-layer thermistor . . . . . . . . . 114 5.3.3 A numerical 3D model of heat and current flow . . . . . . . 116 5.4 OLED stack and experimental conception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 5.5 The Switch-back effect in planar light sources . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 5.5.1 Predictions from numerical 3D modeling . . . . . . . . . . . 121 5.5.2 Experimental proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 5.5.3 Variation of vertical heat flux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 5.5.4 Variation of the OLED area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 5.6 Electrothermal tristabilities in OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 5.6.1 Observing different burn-in schematics . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 5.6.2 Bistability and tristability in organic semiconductors . . . . 134 5.6.3 Experimental indications for attempted branch hopping . . . 138 5.6.4 Saving bright OLEDs from burning in . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 5.6.5 Taking another view onto the camera pictures . . . . . . . . 145 6 Charge-carrier recombination and exciton management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 6.1 Optical down conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 6.1.1 Spectral reshaping of visible OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 6.1.2 Infrared-emitting OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 6.2 Dual-state Förster transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 6.2.1 Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 6.2.2 Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 6.3 Singlet fission and triplet fusion in rubrene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 6.3.1 Photoluminescence of pure and doped rubrene films . . . . . 163 6.3.2 Electroluminescence transients of rubrene OLEDs . . . . . . 172 6.4 Charge transfer-state tuning by electric fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 6.4.1 CT-state tuning via doping variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 6.4.2 CT-state tuning via voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 6.5 Excursus: Exciton-spin mixing for wavelength identification . . . . 183 6.5.1 Characteristics of the active film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 6.5.2 Conception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 6.5.3 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 6.5.4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 6.5.5 Application demonstrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 6.5.6 All-organic device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 6.5.7 Device limitations and prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 7 Conclusion and outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 7.1 Charge-carrier injection into doped films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 7.2 Charge-carrier transport in hot OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 7.2.1 Prospects for OLED lighting facing tristable behavior . . . . 209 7.2.2 Outlook: Accessing the hidden PDR 2 region . . . . . . . . . 210 7.3 Charge-carrier recombination and spin mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 7.3.1 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 7.3.2 Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 / Wer sich heute für ein neues Mobiltelefon entscheidet, kauft damit wahrscheinlich einen Bildschirm aus organischen Leuchtdioden (OLEDs). Durch ihre brillanten Farben, die hohe erreichbare Auflösung und eine vergleichsweise einfache Prozessierung werden OLEDs als relativ neue Bildschirmtechnologie in den nächsten Jahren wohl den größten Marktanteil ausmachen. Da sie nicht auf der starren Kristallstruktur klassischer Halbleiter beruhen und als planare Dünnschichtmodule produziert werden können, ermöglichen sie außerdem die Fertigung großer Flächenstrahler auf flexiblen Substraten – ein sehr attraktives Szenario für zukünftige Beleuchtungssysteme. Trotz dieser vielversprechenden Eigenschaften steht der Durchbruch der OLED-Technologie als Leuchtmittel noch aus und erfordert weitere Forschung. Die Dynamik der Ladungsträger (Elektronen und Löcher) in einer OLED charakterisiert wichtige Teile der Bauteilfunktion und ermöglicht daher das Verständnis grundlegender physikalischer Konzepte und Phänomene. Diese Arbeit leitet anhand dieser Beschreibung experimentelle Methoden und Bauteilkonzepte ab, um die Effizienz und Stabilität von OLEDs zu optimieren. OLEDs zeichnen sich dadurch aus, dass ein elektrischer Strom aus Ladungsträgern (Elektronen und Löchern) möglichst effizient unter Aussendung von Licht rekombiniert. Diesem Prozess geht eine Ladungsträgerinjektion und deren Transport zur Emissionsschicht voraus. Diese drei Aspekte werden in dieser Arbeit zusammenhängend diskutiert. Als erstes wird eine Methode vorgestellt, die Injektionswiderstände anhand eines einfachen Experimentes quantifiziert. Sie bildet eine wertvolle Möglichkeit, Injektionsschichten besser zu verstehen und zu optimieren. Anschließend wird der Ladungsträgertransport bei hohen elektrischen Strömen untersucht, wie sie für OLEDs als helle Beleuchtungselemente nötig sind. Hier werden elektro-thermische Effekte vorgestellt, die physikalische Grenzen für das Design und die Funktion von OLED Modulen bilden und deren plötzliches Versagen erklären. Abschließend wird die Dynamik der stark elektrostatisch gebundenen Ladungsträgerpaare, sogenannter Exzitonen, kurz vor deren Rekombination untersucht. Es werden verschiedene Möglichkeiten vorgestellt sie so zu manipulieren, dass sich das Abstrahlverhalten der OLED anhand bestimmter Anforderungen einstellen lässt.:List of publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v List of abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1 Light sources and the human society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1.1 Human light perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.1.2 Physical light quantification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.1.3 Non-visual light impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.1.4 Implications for modern light sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.2 Organic semiconductors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.2.1 Molecular energy states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.2.2 Intramolecular state transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2.2.3 Molecular films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.2.4 Electrical doping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 2.2.5 Charge-carrier transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 2.2.6 Exciton formation and recombination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 2.2.7 Exciton transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.3 Organic light-emitting diodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.3.1 Structure and operation principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.3.2 Metal-semiconductor interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 2.3.3 Typical operation characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 2.4 Colloidal nanocrystal emitters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 2.4.1 Terminology: Nanocrystals and quantum dots . . . . . . . . 52 2.4.2 The particle-in-a-box model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 2.4.3 Surface passivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.1 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.1.1 OLED materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.1.2 Materials for photoluminescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.2 Sample preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 3.2.1 Thermal evaporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 3.2.2 Solution processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 3.3 Spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 3.3.1 Absorbance spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 3.3.2 Photoluminescence quantum yield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 3.3.3 Excitation sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3.3.4 Sensitive EQE for absorber materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 3.4 Exciton-lifetime analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.4.1 Triplet lifetime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.4.2 Singlet-state lifetime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 3.4.3 Lifetime extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 3.5 OLED characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 3.5.1 Current-voltage-luminance and quantum efficiency . . . . . . 73 3.5.2 Temperature-controlled evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4 Charge-carrier injection into doped organic films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 4.1 Ohmic injection contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 4.2 Device architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 4.2.1 Conception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 4.2.2 Device symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 4.2.3 Device homogeneity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 4.3 Resistance characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 4.3.1 Experimental results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 4.3.2 Equivalent-circuit development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4.4 Impedance spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 4.4.1 Measurement fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 4.4.2 Thickness dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 4.4.3 Temperature dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 4.5 Depletion zone variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 4.6 Molybdenum oxide as a case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 5 Charge-carrier transport and self-heating in OLED lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 5.1 Joule self-heating in OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 5.1.1 Electrothermal feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 5.1.2 Thermistors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 5.1.3 Cooling strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 5.2 Self-heating causes lateral luminance inhomogeneities in OLEDs . . 108 5.2.1 The influence of transparent electrodes . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 5.2.2 Luminance inhomogeneities in large OLED panels . . . . . . 110 5.3 Electrothermal OLED models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 5.3.1 Perceiving an OLED as thermistor array . . . . . . . . . . . 112 5.3.2 The OLED as a single three-layer thermistor . . . . . . . . . 114 5.3.3 A numerical 3D model of heat and current flow . . . . . . . 116 5.4 OLED stack and experimental conception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 5.5 The Switch-back effect in planar light sources . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 5.5.1 Predictions from numerical 3D modeling . . . . . . . . . . . 121 5.5.2 Experimental proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 5.5.3 Variation of vertical heat flux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 5.5.4 Variation of the OLED area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 5.6 Electrothermal tristabilities in OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 5.6.1 Observing different burn-in schematics . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 5.6.2 Bistability and tristability in organic semiconductors . . . . 134 5.6.3 Experimental indications for attempted branch hopping . . . 138 5.6.4 Saving bright OLEDs from burning in . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 5.6.5 Taking another view onto the camera pictures . . . . . . . . 145 6 Charge-carrier recombination and exciton management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 6.1 Optical down conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 6.1.1 Spectral reshaping of visible OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 6.1.2 Infrared-emitting OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 6.2 Dual-state Förster transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 6.2.1 Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 6.2.2 Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 6.3 Singlet fission and triplet fusion in rubrene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 6.3.1 Photoluminescence of pure and doped rubrene films . . . . . 163 6.3.2 Electroluminescence transients of rubrene OLEDs . . . . . . 172 6.4 Charge transfer-state tuning by electric fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 6.4.1 CT-state tuning via doping variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 6.4.2 CT-state tuning via voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 6.5 Excursus: Exciton-spin mixing for wavelength identification . . . . 183 6.5.1 Characteristics of the active film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 6.5.2 Conception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 6.5.3 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 6.5.4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 6.5.5 Application demonstrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 6.5.6 All-organic device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 6.5.7 Device limitations and prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 7 Conclusion and outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 7.1 Charge-carrier injection into doped films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 7.2 Charge-carrier transport in hot OLEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 7.2.1 Prospects for OLED lighting facing tristable behavior . . . . 209 7.2.2 Outlook: Accessing the hidden PDR 2 region . . . . . . . . . 210 7.3 Charge-carrier recombination and spin mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 7.3.1 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 7.3.2 Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Current methods for measuring energy flow rate in a pipe use a variety of invasive sensors, including temperature sensors, turbine flow meters, and vortex shedding devices. These systems are costly to buy and install. A new approach that uses non-invasive sensors that are easy to install and less expensive has been developed. A thermal interrogation method using heat flux and temperature measurements is used. A transient thermal model, lumped capacitance method LCM, before and during activation of an external heater provides estimates of the fluid heat transfer coefficient ℎ and fluid temperature. The major components of the system are a thin-foil thermocouple, a heat flux sensor (PHFS), and a heater. To minimize the thermal contact resistance 𝑅" between the thermocouple thickness and the pipe surface, two thermocouples, welded and parallel, were tested together in the same set-up. Values of heat transfer coefficient ℎ, thermal contact resistance 𝑅", time constant 𝜏, and the water temperature °C, were determined by using a parameter estimation code which depends on the minimum root mean square 𝑅𝑀𝑆 error between the analytical and experimental sensor temperature values. The time for processing data to get the parameter estimation values is from three to four minutes. The experiments were done over a range of flow rates (1.5 gallon/minute to 14.5 gallon/minute). A correlation between the heat transfer coefficient ℎ and the flow rate 𝑄 was done for both the parallel and the welded thermocouples. Overall, the parallel thermocouple is better than the welded thermocouple. The parallel thermocouple gives small average thermal contact resistance 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑅"=0.00001 (𝑚2.°C/𝑊), and consistence values of water temperature and heat transfer coefficient ℎ, with good repeatability and sensitivity. Consequently, a non-invasive energy flow rate meter or (BTU) meter can be used to estimate the flow rate and the fluid temperature in real life. / MS / Today, the measuring energy flow rate, measuring flow rate and the fluid temperature, in a pipe is crucial in many engineering fields. In addition, there has been increased use of energy flow rate meters in the renewable energy system and other applications such as solar thermal and geothermal to estimate the useful thermal energy. Some of the commercial energy flow rate meters are using an invasive sensor, has to be inside the pipe, including turbine flow meter and vortex shedding device. These systems are expensive and difficult to install. A new approach that uses non-invasive sensors, attached on the outside of the pipe, that are easy to install and less expensive has been developed by using the heat flux and temperature measurements. A parameter estimation routine was used to analyze the data which depends on the minimum root mean square 𝑅𝑀𝑆 error between the calculated and experimental temperature values. A correlation between the unknown parameter, heat transfer coefficient (ℎ), and the measured flow rate 𝑄 was done to estimate the flow rate. The results show that the new non-invasive system has good repeatability, 15.45%, high sensitivity, and it is easy to install. Consequently, a non-invasive energy flow rate meter or (BTU) meter can be used to estimate the flow rate and the fluid temperature in real life.

This work presents the development of a novel and non-invasive method that measures fluid flow rate and temperature in pipes. While current non-invasive flow meters are able to measure pipe flow rate, they cannot simultaneously measure the internal temperature of the fluid flow, which limits their widespread application. Moreover, devices that are able to determine flow temperature are primarily intrusive and require constant maintenance, which can shut down operation, resulting in downtime and economic loss. Consequently, non-invasive flow rate and temperature measurement systems are becoming increasingly attractive for a variety of operations, including for use in leak detection, energy metering, energy optimization, and oil and gas production, to name a few. In this work, a new solution method and parameter estimation scheme are developed and deployed to non-invasively determine fluid flow rate and temperature in a pipe. This new method is utilized in conjunction with a sensor-based apparatus--"namely, the Combined Heat Flux and Temperature Sensor (CHFT+), which employs simultaneous heat flux and temperature measurements for non-invasive thermal interrogation (NITI). In this work, the CHFT+ sensor embodiment is referred to as the British Thermal Unit (BTU) Meter. The fluid's flow rate and temperature are determined by estimating the fluid's convection heat transfer coefficient and the sensor-pipe thermal contact resistance. The new solution method and parameter estimation scheme were validated using both simulated and experimental data. The experimental data was validated for accuracy using a commercially available FR1118P10 Inline Flowmeter by Sotera Systems (Fort Wayne, IN) and a ThermaGate sensor by ThermaSENSE Corp. (Roanoke, VA). This study's experimental results displayed excellent agreement with values estimated from the aforementioned methods. Once tested in conjunction with the non-invasive BTU Meter, the proposed solution and parameter estimation scheme displayed an excellent level of validity and reliability in the results. Given the proposed BTU Meter's non-invasive design and experimental results, the developed solution and parameter estimation scheme shows promise for use in a variety of different residential, commercial, and industrial applications. / MS / This work documents the development of a novel and non-invasive method that measures fluid flow rate and temperature in pipes. While current non-invasive flow meters are able to measure pipe flow rate, they cannot simultaneously measure the internal temperature of the fluid flow, which limits their widespread application. Moreover, devices that are able to determine flow temperature are primarily intrusive and require constant maintenance, which can shut down operation, resulting in downtime and economic loss. Consequently, non-invasive flow rate and temperature measurement systems are becoming increasingly attractive for a variety of operations, including for use in leak detection, energy metering, energy optimization, and oil and gas production, to name a few. This paper presents a new method that utilizes a non-invasive British Thermal Unit (BTU) Meter based on Combined Heat Flux and Temperature Sensor (CHFT+) technology to determine fluid flow rate and temperature in pipes. The non-invasive BTU Meter uses thermal interrogation to determine different flow parameters, which are used to determine the fluid flow rate and temperature inside a pipe. The method was tested and validated for accuracy and reliability through simulations and experiments. Given the proposed BTU Meter’s noninvasive design and excellent experimental results, the developed novel sensing method shows promise for use in a variety of different residential, commercial, and industrial applications.

Dans le cadre des applications transports, et plus particulièrement de "l’avion plus électrique", avec une demande toujours plus présente de réduction d’encombrement et de poids, la tendance est à l’intégration de plus en plus poussée des convertisseurs statiques. L’augmentation de leur densité de puissance et celle des contraintes thermiques, induites par l’environnement dans lequel ces structures sont localisées, deviennent de plus en plus critiques. La gestion thermique de ces dispositifs est assurée par des systèmes de refroidissement sur lesquels sont montés les composants semi-conducteurs via un matériau d’interface thermique. Une gestion performante sera obtenue par la diminution de la résistance thermique globale entre les éléments dissipatifs et le milieu ambiant grâce en autre à l’amélioration du système de refroidissement et des propriétés thermiques des matériaux constituant le module. Or cette interface est un point délicat du transfert de chaleur car elle peut représenter plusieurs dizaines de pourcents de la résistance thermique globale. Elle nécessite donc une connaissance approfondie de son comportement aux sollicitations thermiques. Après un état de l’art sur les matériaux d’interfaces thermiques et les méthodes de caractérisation des propriétés thermophysiques des matériaux, nous proposons la mise en œuvre d’outils expérimentaux et mathématiques permettant de suivre l’éventuelle évolution de matériaux d’interfaces utilisés en électronique de puissance au cours d’un vieillissement par cyclage en température. Pour cela, deux méthodes sont présentées. La première repose sur la mesure de la résistance thermique des interfaces en régime stationnaire avec un transfert de chaleur monodimensionnel alors que la seconde, basée sur une caractérisation transitoire thermique d’un système, permet d’en identifier les constantes de temps et le réseau Résistance-Capacité du système testé. Des travaux de simulations numériques ont été menés sur les deux types de bancs expérimentaux, d’un côté pour pouvoir évaluer les pertes thermiques latérales du banc statiques, de l’autre côté pour montrer qu’il est bien possible de détecter une variation de la résistance thermique d’un matériau d’interface par l’analyse de l’impédance thermique. / In the context of transportation applications, and especially the "more electric aircraft", with an ever present demand for space and weight reduction, the trend is to integrate more extensive of static converters. The increase in power density and the thermal stresses induced by the environment in which these structures are located, are becoming increasingly critical. Thermal management of these devices is provided by cooling systems on which are mounted the semiconductor components via a thermal interface material. Effective management will be achieved by reducing the overall thermal resistance between the dissipative elements and the environment by improving the cooling system and thermal properties of the materials constituting the module. However, this interface is a delicate point of heat transfer because it can represent several tens of percent of the circuit total thermal resistance. It therefore requires a thorough knowledge of their behavior in thermal stresses. After a state of the art on the thermal interface materials and methods for characterizing thermophysical properties of materials, we propose the implementation of experimental and mathematical tools to monitor any change of interface materials used in power electronics during aging by temperature cycling. For this, two methods are presented. The first is based on the measurement of the thermal resistance of the interfaces with a steady one-dimensional heat transfer, while the second, based on a characterization of a transient thermal system, allows to identify the time constants and the resistor and capacitor network of the tested system. Numerical simulations were carried out on two types of experimental benches, on one side in order to assess the lateral heat losses from static bench, on the other side to show that it is possible to detect a change in the thermal resistance of a TIM with the analysis of the thermal impedance.

L’instrumentation de plus en plus poussée des systèmes mécaniques (aéronautique, automobile,…) impose une utilisation croissante des connecteurs électriques. Cependant, leur environnement de fonctionnement (sollicitations chimiques et vibratoires) peut entrainer une dégradation plus ou moins sévère des contacts électriques limitant ainsi le passage du courant. Pour limiter cette dégradation et assurer la stabilité des connexions, des revêtements d’or sont couramment appliqués au niveau des contacts. Cependant, la conjecture économique et le coût très élevé de l’or nécessite de trouver une alternative moins chère. Parmi les métaux conducteurs, l’argent est aujourd’hui le meilleur candidat. L’objectif de cette thèse est donc d’étudier la réponse électrique et l’endommagement de dépôts argent soumis à des sollicitations de fretting. Pour cela, ces travaux de recherche ont été abordés selon trois axes. Le premier axe a permis une étude complète d’un contact homogène argent/argent afin d’identifier les mécanismes de dégradation responsables de la rupture électrique aussi bien en fretting qu’en glissement alterné. Il a aussi été possible, par une approche énergétique, de mettre en place un modèle prédictif permettant d’extrapoler les durées de vie du contact selon différents paramètres de chargement. Une étude complémentaire a également montré l’impact d’une atmosphère corrosive à base de soufre sur les contacts électriques en argent. Le second axe a permis, quant à lui, d’étudier le comportement tribologique et électrique de nouveaux matériaux à base d’argent développés dans le but de remplacer les dépôts dorés. L’analyse de ces contacts homogènes a permis de mettre en évidence les mécanismes de dégradation et les comportements mécaniques des contacts soumis à des environnements humides. Dans le dernier axe, une étude a été menée sur ces mêmes matériaux à base d’argent mais en configuration hétérogène contre un dépôt d’or afin d’identifier le comportement tribologique et électrique de ces contacts quand ils sont composés par des matériaux avec des propriétés similaires ou opposées. / Advanced instrumentation in mechanical systems (aeronautical, automobile etc…) goes hand in hand with an ever increased use of electrical connectors. However, the unfavorable operating environment (chemical attack and vibrational loads) causes more or less severe degradation of electrical contacts, which in turn perturbs their electrical conductivity. Gold plating is usually applied in electrical contacts in order to limit damage and to ensure connector stability. However, economic constraints and the high cost of gold require cheaper alternatives. Amongst conductive metals, silver is the best candidate. Hence, the purpose of this PhD project is to investigate the electrical response and the degradation of silver coatings when subjected to fretting loadings. The study is divided into three main research axes. The first axis consists in realizing a complete study of a homogeneous silver/silver contact in order to identify the degradation mechanisms that are responsible for the electrical failure, both in fretting loadings and reciprocating sliding. It was possible to formalize a predictive model, using an energy density approach, allowing to extrapolate the lifetime of the contact as a function of various loading parameters. A complementary study also showed the impact of a corrosive sulfur atmosphere on these electric contacts. As part of the second research axis, an investigation of the tribological and electrical behavior of novel silver-based materials, solely synthesized as a gold replacement, was performed. The analysis of these homogeneous contacts allowed to explain the degradation mechanism and the mechanical behavior of these contacts when subjected to a wet environment. In the last research axis a study was led on the same silver-based materials but in a heterogenous configuration against a gold coating in order to identify the tribological and electrical behavior of these contacts when composed by materials with similar or opposite properties.

Pour augmenter les performances des MOSFET, il est indispensable de comprendre les différents phénomènes physiques qui dégradent la mobilité apparente des électrons et trous traversant le canal et qui limitent l’amélioration obtenue par réduction de sa longueur. Pour cela, une étude précise du transport par des simulations Monte-Carlo a été effectuée. Cette méthode de simulation semi-classique permet de résoudre l’équation de transport de Boltzmann en prenant en compte à la fois le régime quasi-balistique, les interactions avec les phonons, les impuretés ionisées, la rugosité de surface, et le confinement quantique, par génération aléatoire des électrons et de leurs interactions, décrites selon les lois de la mécanique quantique.Un modèle simple de mobilité a alors pu être établi et validé par les simulations. Il est basé sur trois paramètres importants : la mobilité à canal long, la résistance d’accès et la résistance balistique. Ce modèle de mobilité s’est avéré compatible avec des résultats expérimentaux, ce qui suggère que la résistance d’accès est déterminante dans la réduction de mobilité apparente.Par ailleurs, la contribution du transport balistique dans la mobilité a été calculée en tenant compte précisément du confinement quantique et des fonctions de distribution des différentes sous-bandes, ce qui a ainsi permis d’améliorer le modèle de mobilité apparente de Shur qui sous-estime (d’environ 50 Ω.µm) la résistance balistique. Cette résistance balistique est inférieure à la résistance d’accès mais elle pourrait avoir une incidence sur les dispositifs ultimes. / To improve the MOSFET performances, it is necessary to understand the physical phenomena contributing to the apparent mobility of electrons and holes crossing the channel, and limiting the improvement obtained by reducing the channel length. Therefore, a precise study of transport using Monte Carlo simulations was performed. This semi-classical simulation method allows for solving the Boltzmann transport equation, taking into account the quasi-ballistic regime, phonon and Coulomb scattering, surface roughness, as well as the quantum confinement, by randomly generating electrons and their scattering events described by the laws of quantum mechanics.A simple mobility model has been established and validated by the simulations. It is based upon three important parameters: the long channel mobility, the access resistance, and ballistic resistance. This mobility model proved compatible with experimental results, suggesting that the access resistance is determining in the apparent mobility reduction.By the way, the ballistic transport contribution in the mobility was calculated by taking into account the quantum confinement accurately and the distribution functions of the different subbands, allowing for an improvement of Shur’s apparent mobility model, which underestimates (of about 50 Ω.µm) the ballistic resistance. The latter is lower than the access resistance but it could have an incidence on the ultimate devices.Keywords: MOSFET, FDSOI, mobility degradation, analytical model, contact resistance, ballistic, multi-subband Monte Carlo, simulation.

Le mémoire de thèse propose une méthode de modélisation multi physique capable de quantifier l’influence des paramètres des processus d’écrouissage, le câblage et le compactage, sur le comportement mécanique et électrique des câbles électriques. Les propriétés électriques d’un câble dépendent de la nature du matériau utilisé, de son état métallurgique, des contraintes mécaniques exercées et de la conductance électrique des aires de contact inter-fils. De nombreuses mesures ont permis de définir les caractéristiques des câbles mais aussi des matériaux utilisés, comme par exemple la variation de la conductivité électrique d’un fil de cuivre en fonction de l’écrouissage. La modélisation mécanicoélectrique, réalisée avec le logiciel Abaqus®, est utilisée pour étudier les différents paramètres impliqués dans les processus de câblage et de compactage. Cela a permis de déterminer les déformations géométriques des fils ainsi que les contraintes mécaniques dans le câble. Les résultats de simulation sont comparés aux mesures afin de valider la précision des modèles numériques développés.Un couplage faible entre les modèles mécanique et électrique permet de mettre en évidence la distribution non-homogène de la conductivité électrique à l’intérieur d’un conducteur après qu’il ait subi des contraintes mécaniques dues au processus de déformation à froid, le câblage et le compactage. Ensuite, en appliquant une procédure d’optimisation, nous avons identifié les paramètres capables de réduire de 2 % la masse du matériau conducteur utilisés dans les processus de fabrication, tout en conservant des propriétés mécaniques et électrique répondant aux exigences normatives des constructeurs de câbles. / The presented PhD thesis propose multi-physics modeling method able to predict the impact of stranding and compacting processes parameters on the mechanical and electrical behavior of stranded conductors. The electrical properties of stranded conductors depend on the nature of the material, on its metallurgical state, on the mechanical pressure within the conductor and on the electrical conductance of contact areas between wires. A wide range of measurements has allowed us to define the characteristics of structures and materials, such as for example the resistivity as a function of the stresses due to material hardening. The electromechanical modeling with Abaqus and Vector Fields software are used to study different parameters involved in the stranding and compacting processes to determine actual wires shapes, induced deformations and actual stresses between wires within the conductor. The results obtained by simulation were compared with experimental measurements to analyze the accuracy of the model. By coupling mechanical and electrical simulations, we pointed out the non-homogeneous distribution of the electrical conductivity along conductor cross sections resulting from the hardness of each single wire. Applying the optimization procedure, we have identified the parameters able to reduce the mass of conducting material by 2 % while maintaining mechanical and electrical properties that meet the prescriptive requirements of cables manufacturers and standards.

The topic of this thesis is the degradation of fuel cell electrodes in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In particular, the degradation associated with localized fuel starvation, which is often encountered during start-ups and shut-downs (SUs/SDs) of PEMFCs. At SU/SD, O2 and H2 usually coexist in the anode compartment. This situation forces the opposite electrode, i.e. the cathode, to very high potentials, resulting in the corrosion of the carbon supporting the catalyst, referred to as carbon corrosion. The aim of this thesis has been to develop methods, materials and strategies to address the issues associated to carbon corrosion in PEMFC.The extent of catalyst degradation is commonly evaluated determining the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of fuel cell electrode. Therefore, it was considered important to study the effect of RH, temperature and type of accelerated degradation test (ADT) on the ECSA. Low RH decreases the ECSA of the electrode, attributed to re-structuring the ionomer and loss of contact with the catalyst.In the search for more durable supports, we evaluated different accelerated degradation tests (ADTs) for carbon corrosion. Potentiostatic holds at 1.2 V vs. RHE were found to be too mild. Potentiostatic holds at 1.4 V vs. RHE were found to induce a large degree of reversibility, also attributed to ionomer re-structuring. Triangle-wave potential cycling was found to irreversibly degrade the electrode within a reasonable amount of time, closely simulating SU/SD conditions.Corrosion of carbon-based supports not only degrades the catalyst by lowering the ECSA, but also has a profound effect on the electrode morphology. Decreased electrode porosity, increased agglomerate size and ionomer enrichment all contribute to the degradation of the mass-transport properties of the cathode. Graphitized carbon fibers were found to be 5 times more corrosion resistant than conventional carbons, primarily attributed to their lower surface area. Furthermore, fibers were found to better maintain the integrity of the electrode morphology, generally showing less degradation of the mass-transport losses. Different system strategies for shut-down were evaluated. Not doing anything to the fuel cell during shut-downs is detrimental for the fuel cell. O2 consumption with a load and H2 purge of the cathode were found to give around 100 times lower degradation rates compared to not doing anything and almost 10 times lower degradation rate than a simple air purge of the anode. Finally, in-situ measurements of contact resistance showed that the contact resistance between GDL and BPP is highly dynamic and changes with operating conditions. / Denna doktorsavhandling behandlar degraderingen av polymerelektrolytbränslecellselektroder. polymerelektrolytbränslecellselektroder. Den handlar särskilt om nedbrytningen av elektroden kopplad till en degraderingsmekanism som heter ”localized fuel starvation” oftast närvarande vid uppstart och nedstängning av bränslecellen. Vid start och stopp kan syrgas och vätgas förekomma samtidigt i anoden. Detta leder till väldigt höga elektrodpotentialer i katoden. Resultatet av detta är att kolbaserade katalysatorbärare korroderar och att bränslecellens livslängd förkortas. Målet med avhandlingen har varit att utveckla metoder, material och strategier för att både öka förståelsen av denna degraderingsmekanism och för att maximera katalysatorbärarens livslängd.Ett vanligt tillvägagångsätt för att bestämma graden av katalysatorns degradering är genom mätning av den elektrokemiskt aktiva ytan hos bränslecellselektroderna. I denna avhandling har dessutom effekten av temperatur och relativ fukthalt studerats. Låga fukthalter minskar den aktiva ytan hos elektroden, vilket sannolikt orsakas av en omstrukturering av jonomeren och av kontaktförlust mellan jonomer och katalysator.Olika accelererade degraderingstester för kolkorrosion har använts. Potentiostatiska tester vid 1.2 V mot RHE visade sig vara för milda. Potentiostatiska tester vid 1.4 V mot RHE visade sig däremot medföra en hög grad av reversibilitet, som också den tros vara orsakad av en omstrukturering av jonomeren. Cykling av elektrodpotentialen degraderade istället elektroden irreversibelt, inom rimlig tid och kunde väldigt nära simulera förhållandena vid uppstart och nedstängning.Korrosionen av katalysatorbäraren medför degradering av katalysatorn och har också en stor inverkan på elektrodens morfologi. En minskad elektrodporositet, en ökad agglomeratstorlek och en anrikning av jonomeren gör att elektrodens masstransportegenskaper försämras. Grafitiska kolfibrer visade sig vara mer resistenta mot kolkorrosion än konventionella kol, främst p.g.a. deras låga ytarea. Grafitiska kolfibrer visade också en förmåga att bättre bibehålla elektrodens morfologi efter accelererade tester, vilket resulterade i lägre masstransportförluster.Olika systemstrategier för nedstängning jämfördes. Att inte göra något under nedstängning är mycket skadligt för bränslecellen. Förbrukning av syre med en last och spolning av katoden med vätgas visade 100 gånger lägre degraderingshastighet av bränslecellsprestanda jämfört med att inte göra något alls och 10 gånger lägre degraderingshastighet jämfört med spolning av anoden med luft. In-situ kontaktresistansmätningar visade att kontaktresistansen mellan bipolära plattor och GDL är dynamisk och kan ändras beroende på driftförhållandena. / <p>QC 20131104</p>