Thomas Springer (1933 - 2020)

An obituary for Dr. Thomas Springer, who died on Feb 15, 2020 at the age of 86, is presented. He was a long time member of the Electrochemical Society (ECS) and electrochemical modeler. He was the first to explain the excessive "mass transfer" losses then observed with the thick membrane f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Electrochemical Society interface 2020-07, Vol.29 (2), p.36
Main Authors:	Garzon, Fernando, Wilson, Mahlon, Zawodzinski, Thomas, Gottesfeld, Shimson, Zelenay, Piotr, Mukundan, Rangachary
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Deaths Fuel cells Mass transfer Membranes Physical properties Water management
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	An obituary for Dr. Thomas Springer, who died on Feb 15, 2020 at the age of 86, is presented. He was a long time member of the Electrochemical Society (ECS) and electrochemical modeler. He was the first to explain the excessive "mass transfer" losses then observed with the thick membrane fuel cells. By modeling and measuring the increase in membrane resistance with current in an operating fuel cell, he demonstrated that the "mass transfer" losses were actually an increase in membrane resistance due to water drag. Then, with this new understanding in cell water management, he developed the first physics-based (i.e., not phenomenological) 1D fuel cell model that was able to accurately replicate fuel cell behavior using only experimentally derived physical parameters.
ISSN:	1064-8208 1944-8783