Investigation on degradation mechanism of hydrogen–oxygen proton exchange membrane fuel cell under current cyclic loading

Kai Meng, Ben Chen, Haoran Zhou, Jun Shen, Zuguo Shen and Zhengkai Tu

Energy, 2022, vol. 242, issue C

Abstract: Hydrogen-oxygen proton exchange membrane fuel cell with good application prospect in the special occasions of space exploration and underwater navigation, its durability is still a key problem to be solved. In this research, current cyclic loading durability experiment of a hydrogen-oxygen proton exchange membrane fuel cell with an active area of 50 cm2 was carried out. The performance degradation was characterized by polarization curves, Cyclic Voltammetry and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy. Finally, the decay of catalyst and membrane was evaluated by Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Microscope. After 2500 loading cycles, it with a total performance degradation of 31.05% at 1200 mA cm−2. The electrochemical active surface Area decreased by 61.6% and electrochemical Impedance increased by 33.04%. What’ more, the catalyst layer in outlet area had been partially damaged, and its Pt particles have agglomerated and grown. More seriously, Pt particles had migrated and lost. The decay phenomenon was also found in the proton exchange membrane, in which element F, S and C were partially lost, especially element F. The findings reported here are expected to provide more insights into the effect of current loading on the decay of membrane electrode assembly.

Keywords: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell; Current cyclic loading; Degradation mechanism; Pt migration; Membrane degradation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544221032941
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:energy:v:242:y:2022:i:c:s0360544221032941

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.123045

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().