Carbon Catalyst-Support Corrosion in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells: Mechanistic Insights

Abstract

Combustible basse température (LPAC) -17, Rue des In this paper we discuss a novel mechanistic model describing the coupling between the PEFC MEA electro-catalysis and the cathode carbon catalyst-support corrosion. On a physical basis, the model describes the feedback between the instantaneous performance and the intrinsic cathode carbon oxidation process. It allows exploring the impact of the operating conditions and the initial electrodes compositions on the PEFC MEA durability. Some numerical simulations show agreement with experimental knowledge already reported in literature: in particular, when the anode chamber is partially exposed to oxygen (induced by PEM crossover or fuel starvation), cathode thickness decrease and cell potential decay are predicted. Furthermore, we found that cathode damage increases as platinum loading increases and as platinum nano-particles size decreases. On the basis of our modeling approach we propose, and experimentally validate, the use of anodic CO injection as a way to mitigate cathodic carbon corrosion in in-house elaborated model MEAs.

An opinion on catalyst degradation mechanisms during catalyst support focused accelerated stress test (AST) for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs)

“…Development of durable catalyst support materials for PEMFC applications requires fast evaluation of durability through accelerated stress test (AST) under predefined protocols based on the performance study either in an operating FC or in a liquid electrolyte electrochemical cell [15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Pt/C Electrocatalyst Durability Enhancement by Inhibition of Pt Nanoparticle Growth Through Microwave Pretreatment of Carbon Support

“…It can be seen that during AST, the Pt/C MW‐180 °C‐EG and Pt/C MW‐140 °C samples exhibit lower degradation as compared to that for the Pt/C untreated . During AST1, the catalysts are subjected to potential cycling between 0.4 and 1.6 V in 1 M H 2 SO 4 resulting in accelerated degradation of the electrocatalytic activity of the Pt/C due to loss of both the Pt catalyst and the carbon support [3c,e,8,11a,26] . The decreased ECSA during stress cycling has been attributed to factors such as Pt nanoparticle growth, Pt dissolution, support corrosion, etc [26] .…”

“…Dedicated scientific efforts have been made to understand and to mitigate catalyst degradation mechanisms [4] . Among others, modification of the supporting carbon is a promising route to enhance the Pt/C durability [3a–d,g,h,5] . Strategies to improve Pt/C durability via the support include (i) the use of high corrosion resistant catalyst supports such as graphitized carbon nanotubes (CNTs), [6] graphene, [7] graphite, [8] etc.…”

Mechanistic Investigations of NO2 Impact on ORR in PEM Fuel Cells: a Coupled Experimental and Multi-scale Modeling Approach

“…For example, this approach was successfully applied to the study of the impact of carbon monoxide pollution in hydrogen on PEMFC performances and durability, where it has been suggested that, under specific operation conditions, anode CO contamination can be ECS Transactions, 25 (1) 1595-1604 (2009) used as a mitigation method of both cathode C corrosion and membrane degradation (13,14).…”