A review of PEM fuel cell durability: materials degradation, local heterogeneities of aging and possible mitigation strategies

Laetitia Dubau, Luis Castanheira, Frédéric Maillard, Marian Chatenet, Olivier Lottin, Gaël Maranzana, Jérôme Dillet, Adrien Lamibrac, Jean‐Christophe Perrin, Eddy Moukheiber, Assma ElKaddouri, Gilles De Moor, Corine Bas, Lionel Flandin and Nicolas Caqué

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, 2014, vol. 3, issue 6, 540-560

Abstract: Through a tight collaboration between chemical engineers, polymer scientists, and electrochemists, we address the degradation mechanisms of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) during proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) operation in real life (industrial stacks). A special attention is paid to the heterogeneous nature of the aging and performances degradation in view of the hardware geometry of the stack and MEA. Macroscopically, the MEA is not fuelled evenly by the bipolar plates and severe degradations occur during start‐up and shut‐down events in the region that remains/becomes transiently starved in hydrogen. Such transients are dramatic to the cathode catalyst layer, especially for the carbon substrate supporting the Pt‐based nanoparticles. Another level of heterogeneity is observed between the channel and land areas of the cathode catalyst layer. The degradation of Pt3Co/C nanocrystallites employed at the cathode cannot be avoided in stationary operation either. In addition to the electrochemical Ostwald ripening and to crystallite migration, these nanomaterials undergo severe corrosion of their high surface area carbon support. The mother Pt3Co/C nanocrystallites are continuously depleted in Co, generating Co2+ cations that pollute the ionomer and depreciate the performance of the cathode. Such cationic pollution has also a negative effect on the physicochemical properties of the proton‐exchange membrane (proton conductivity and resistance to fracture), eventually leading to hole formation. These defects were localized with the help of an infrared camera. The mechanical fracture‐resistance of various perfluorosulfonated membranes further demonstrated that polytetrafluoroethylene‐reinforced membranes better resist hole formation, due to their high resistance to crack initiation and propagation. WIREs Energy Environ 2014, 3:540–560. doi: 10.1002/wene.113 This article is categorized under: Fuel Cells and Hydrogen > Science and Materials Fuel Cells and Hydrogen > Systems and Infrastructure Energy Research & Innovation > Science and Materials

Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.113

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:wireae:v:3:y:2014:i:6:p:540-560

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=2041-8396

Access Statistics for this article

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment is currently edited by Peter Lund and John Byrne

More articles in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().