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Title: Carbon corrosion in PEM fuel cells during drive cycle operation

Journal Article · · ECS Transactions (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. Iron Power, New Castle, DE (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

One of the major contributors to degradation involves the electrocatalyst, including the corrosion of the carbons used as catalyst supports, which leads to changes in the catalyst layer structure. We have measured and quantified carbon corrosion during drive cycle operation and as a variation of the upper and lower potential limits used during drive cycle operation. The amount of carbon corrosion is exacerbated by the voltage cycling inherent in the drive cycle compared with constant potential operation. The potential gap between upper and lower potentials appears to be more important than the absolute operating potentials in the normal operating potential regime (0.40V to 0.95V) as changes in the measured carbon corrosion are similar when the upper potential was lower compared to raising the lower potential. Catalyst layer thinning was observed during the simulated drive cycle operation which had an associated decrease in catalyst layer porosity. This catalyst layer thinning is not due solely to carbon corrosion, although carbon corrosion likely plays a role; much of this thinning must be from compaction of the material in the catalyst layer. As a result, the decrease in catalyst layer porosity leads to additional performance losses due to mass transport losses.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1329887
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-25325
Journal Information:
ECS Transactions (Online), Vol. 69, Issue 17; ISSN 1938-6737
Publisher:
Electrochemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Cited By (7)

Thinning of Cathode Catalyst Layer in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells Due to Foreign Cation Contamination journal January 2018
Cathode Loading Impact on Voltage Cycling Induced PEMFC Degradation: A Voltage Loss Analysis journal January 2018
Durability of Pt-Co Alloy Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Cathode Catalysts under Accelerated Stress Tests journal January 2018
Effect of Carbon Corrosion on Wettability of PEM Fuel Cell Electrodes journal January 2019
Correlation of Changes in Electrochemical and Structural Parameters due to Voltage Cycling Induced Degradation in PEM Fuel Cells journal January 2018
Anode Aging during PEMFC Start-Up and Shut-Down: H 2 -Air Fronts vs Voltage Cycles journal January 2018
PEM Fuel Cell Start-up/Shut-down Losses vs Temperature for Non-Graphitized and Graphitized Cathode Carbon Supports journal December 2016

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