Analysis of accelerated degradation of a HT-PEM fuel cell caused by cell reversal in fuel starvation condition. (19th February 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhou, Fan; Andreasen, Søren Juhl; Kær, Søren Knudsen; Yu, Donghong
• Is Part Of: International journal of hydrogen energy. Volume 40:Number 6(2015)
• Page Start: 2833
• Page End: 2839
• Publication Date: 2015-02-19
• Subjects: Hydrogen as fuel -- Periodicals; Hydrogène (Combustible) -- Périodiques; Hydrogen as fuel; Periodicals; 665.81
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.12.082
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-3199

Abstract

<abstract xml:lang="en" abstract-type="author" id="abs0010"> <title id="sectitle0010">Abstract</title> <sec> <p id="abspara0010">This paper reports an accelerated degradation test of a high temperature PEM fuel cell under repeated H<sub>2</sub> starvation condition. The H<sub>2</sub> stoichiometry is cycled between 3.0 and 0.8 every 2 min during the test. The experimental results show that the polarity of the fuel cell is reversed under H<sub>2</sub> starvation condition, and the cell performance indicated by cell voltage at H<sub>2</sub> stoichiometry of 3.0 declines from 0.59 V to 0.41 V in 19 cycles. Since CO<sub>2</sub> is detected in anode exhaust under H<sub>2</sub> starvation condition, carbon corrosion is believed to be the reason for the degradation in this test. After the test, there is only a slight decrease in open circuit voltage of the fuel cell which implies the membrane is not affected by the test. The electrochemical impedance spectrum measurement shows that the H<sub>2</sub> starvation can cause significant increase in the ohmic resistance and charge transfer resistance. By looking at the scanning electron microscopy image of the cross-section of the degraded MEA and comparing it with that of a pristine MEA, great loss in platinum in the anode catalyst layer and carbon corrosion between the anode catalyst layer and the gas diffusion layer are observed, which contribute to the increase in the charge transfer resistance and ohmic resistance, respectively. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that there is an increase in the size of the platinum particle size on both anode and cathode.</p> </sec> </abstract>