Carbon Corrosion in PEM Fuel Cells and the Development of Accelerated Stress Tests

• Published in: Journal of the Electrochemical Society Vol. 165; no. 6; pp. F3148 - F3160
• Main Authors: Macauley, Natalia, Papadias, Dennis D., Fairweather, Joseph, Spernjak, Dusan, Langlois, David, Ahluwalia, Rajesh, More, Karren L., Mukundan, Rangachary, Borup, Rodney L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The Electrochemical Society 01.01.2018
• Subjects: automotive application; carbon support corrosion; ENERGY STORAGE; polymer electrolyte fuel cells
• ISSN: 0013-4651; 1945-7111
• DOI: 10.1149/2.0061806jes

Carbon corrosion is an important degradation mechanism that can impair PEMFC performance through the destruction of catalyst connectivity, collapse of the electrode pore structure, loss of hydrophobic character, and an increase of the catalyst particle size. In this study, carbon corrosion was quantified in situ by measurement of carbon dioxide in the fuel cell exhaust gases through non-dispersive infrared spectroscopy during simulated drive cycle operations consisting of potential cycling with varying upper and lower potential limits. These studies were conducted for three different types of carbon supports. A reduction in the catalyst layer thickness was observed during a simulated drive cycle operation with a concomitant decrease in catalyst layer porosity, which led to performance losses due to increased mass transport limitations. The observed thickness reduction was primarily due to compaction of the catalyst layer, with the actual mass of carbon oxidation (loss) contributing only a small fraction (< 20%). The dynamics of carbon corrosion are presented along with a model that simulates the transient and dynamic corrosion rates observed in our experiments. Accelerated carbon corrosion stress tests are presented and their effects are compared to those observed for the drive cycle test.