Effects of Mg2+ contamination on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Jingyu Zhu, Jinzhu Tan, Qing Pan, Zenghui Liu and Qiong Hou

Energy, 2019, vol. 189, issue C

Abstract: Contamination ions from bipolar plates and elastomeric gaskets for degradation play an important role on the long-term stability and durability of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. In this paper, the effects of Mg2+ contamination on PEM fuel cell performance were investigated experimentally. Five levels of Mg2+ concentrations were used in this work. Electrochemical performance tests were performed by adding the various Mg2+ concentration solutions into the anode H2 fuel stream of the PEM fuel cell. And then scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were employed to study degradation mechanism of the PEM fuel cell performance for Mg2+ contamination. The test results show that both Mg2+ concentration and contamination time had significant effects on PEM fuel cell performance. The voltage and maximum power density of the PEM fuel cell decreased with the increase of Mg2+ concentration and contamination time. EDS and EPMA results indicate that the Magnesium mainly appeared in the PEM for the Mg2+ contaminating of the PEM fuel cell, and the Magnesium increased with the increasing Mg2+ concentration over time. The degradation mechanism of the PEM fuel cell performance for the Mg2+ contamination could be due to ion exchange reaction between Mg2+ and the proton of sulfonic acid groups in the PEM to form the new sulfonate structure.

Keywords: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell; Magnesium ion; Contamination; Performance degradation; Degradation mechanism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:189:y:2019:i:c:s0360544219318304

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.116135

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