PEFCs durability

Xie J, Wood DL, More KL, Atanassov P, Borup RL. 2005a. Microstructural changes of membrane electrode assemblies during PEFC durability testing at high humidity conditions. J Electrochem Soc 152 A1011-A1020. 

J. Xie, D. L. Wood III, K. L. More, P. Atanassov, and R. L. Borup, Micro-structural Changes of Membrane Electrode Assemblies During PEFC Durability Testing at High Humidity Conditions, /. Electrochem. Soc., 12, AlOl 1 (2005). 

R D on PEFC System. METI and NEDO will continue R D on fuel cells to meet performance targets, durability, and cost reductions toward future commercialisation, primarily focusing on PEFCs, R D for relevant system and production technologies, and components such as membrane, electrode, MEA and separators. The budget allocations for 2001-2003 total 14.7 billion the 2003 allocation is 5.11 billion. 

On the cathode side, on the other hand, the primary purpose of gas purge is to remove water from the cathode compartment, particularly in preparation for cold start from subzero temperatures. As gas purge defines the initial condition of water distribution in a cell, it is a crucial step in PEFC cold start. Recent experimental studies have amply shown that not only performance but also material durability of PEFC hinges strongly upon the gas purge process prior to cool down and cold start. This is because an effective gas purge can remove water from the catalyst layer and membrane, thereby creating space for water produced in cold start to be stored. 

A typical PEFC, shown schematically in Fig. 1, consists of the anode and cathode compartments, separated by a proton conducting polymeric membrane. The anode and cathode sides each comprises of gas channel, gas diffusion layer (GDL) and catalyst layer (CL). Despite tremendous recent progress in enhancing the overall cell performance, a pivotal performance/durability limitation in PEFCs centers on liquid water transport and resulting flooding in the constituent components.1,2 Liquid water blocks the porous pathways in the CL and GDL thus causing hindered oxygen transport to the... 

This volume of Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry is intended to provide an overview of advancements in experimental diagnostics and modeling of polymer electrolyte fuel cells. Chapters by Huang and Reifsnider and Gu et al. provide an in-depth review of the durability issues in PEFCs as well as recent developments in understanding and mitigation of degradation in the polymer membrane and electrocatalyst. 

Schmidt, T.J. and Baurmeister, J., Durability and reliability in high-temperature reformed hydrogen PEFCs, ECS Trans., 3, 861, 2006. 

In a PEFC, oxygen and hydrogen crossover is important because of the obvious performance loss, the development of a mixed potential, and even durability issues due to hydrogen peroxide generation platinum migration, and possible carbon corrosion [69]. Furthermore, crossover becomes increasingly important as the membranes used become thinner. Presented in this section are the parameters and governing equations to model this phenomenon. 

Kodani H, Wakizoe M, Miyake N (2005) High temperature membrane with durability for PEFCs. Proceedings of the international fuel cell workshop 2005, Kofu, p 55... 

Hatanaka T, Takeshita T, Murata H, Hasegawa N, Asano T, Kawasumi M, Morimoto Y (2008) Electrode and membrane durability issues of PEFCs. ECS Trans 16 1961-1965... 

The durability and lifetime are important factors for the commercialization of fuel cells. Therefore, the degradation of fuel-cell components has been subjected to an increasing number of studies, mainly focused on PEFCs [56-67]. For AFCs,... 

Long term durability steady test for a single PEFC, Test Module PEFC SC 5-6, http //fctesqa.jrc.ec.europa.eu/downloads/ PEMSCLV/Durability SteadyState TestProcedure.pdf, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Energy, Petten (last accessed 10 December 2011). 

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