Relationships between PEMFC Cathode Kinetic Losses and Contaminants’ Dipole Moment and Adsorption Energy on Pt
- Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States). Hawaii Natural Energy Inst. School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
A database summarizing the effects of 21 contaminants on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) was used to examine relationships between cathode kinetic losses and contaminant physicochemical parameters. Impedance spectroscopy data were employed to obtain oxygen reduction kinetic resistances by fitting data in the 10-158 Hz range to a simplified equivalent circuit. The contaminant dipole moment and the adsorption energy of the contaminant on a Pt surface were chosen as parameters. Dipole moments did not correlate with dimensionless cathode kinetic resistances. In contrast, adsorption energies were quantitatively and linearly correlated with minimum dimensionless cathode kinetic resistances. Contaminants influence the oxygen reduction for contaminant adsorption energies smaller than -24.5 kJ mol-1, a value near the high limit of the adsorption energy of O2 on Pt. Dimensionless cathode kinetic resistances linearly increase with decreasing O2 adsorption energies below -24.5 kJ mol-1. Measured total cell voltage losses are mostly larger than the cathode kinetic losses calculated from kinetic resistance changes, which indicates the existence of other sources of performance degradation. Modifications to the experimental procedure are proposed to ensure that data are comparable on a similar basis and improve the correlation between contaminant adsorption energy and kinetic cell voltage losses.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0000467
- OSTI ID:
- 1437591
- Journal Information:
- Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 163, Issue 3; ISSN 0013-4651
- Publisher:
- The Electrochemical SocietyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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