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The General Rule of Power Converted from Chemical Energy to Electrical Energy
Author(s) -
Shen M.,
Zhang J.,
Scott K.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
fuel cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1615-6854
pISSN - 1615-6846
DOI - 10.1002/fuce.200400031
Subject(s) - electric power , power (physics) , electric potential energy , electrochemistry , chemical energy , electrochemical energy conversion , thermodynamics , materials science , chemistry , physics , electrode
Abstract Electrochemical power sources are widely used to convert chemical energy to electrical energy. Here we report an equation to describe the electrical power characteristics i.e., potential vs. the current performance curves, namely polarization curves of electrochemical power sources. From this basic equation, we describe the performance curve of general electrochemical power sources with three power source parameters: E 0 : equilibrium potential; R: internal resistance; and K: power conversion coefficient. The calculated values from this equation agree with the performance curves of power sources such as different type of fuel cells and batteries. The concept of the power convert coefficient is a new criterion to evaluate and compare the characteristics and capacity of different electrochemical power sources.