Electrochemical investigation of stainless steel corrosion in a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cell

Abstract

Available online xxxKeywords: Corrosion Membrane electrode assembly Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer/fuel cells Gas diffusion layer X-ray diffraction Iron transport and deposition a b s t r a c t The lack of a fundamental understanding of the corrosion mechanisms in the electrochemical environments of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer and/or fuel cells (ECs/FCs) has seriously hindered the improvement of performance and efficiency of PEM ECs/FCs. In this study, a stainless steel mesh was purposely used as an anode gas diffusion layer that was intentionally operated with high positive potentials under harsh oxidative environments in a PEMEC to study the corrosion mechanism of metal migration. A significant amount of iron and nickel cations were determined to transport through the anode catalyst layer, the PEM and the cathode catalyst layer during the PEMEC operation. The formation/deposition of iron oxide and nickel oxide on the carbon paper gas diffusion layer at the cathode side is first revealed by both scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. The results indicate the corrosion elements of iron and nickel are transported from anode to cathode through the catalyst-coated membrane, and deposited on carbon fibers as oxides. This phenomenon could also open a new corrosion-based processing approach to potentially fabricate multifunctional oxide structures on carbon fiber devices. This study has demonstrated a new accelerated test method for investigating the corrosion and durability of metallic materials as well. ScienceDirect j o urn al h om epa ge: www.elsev ier.com/locate/he i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 e6 http://dx.Please cite this article in press as: Mo J, et al., Electrochemical investigation of stainless steel corrosion in a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cell, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2015), http://dx.

Enhancing Biochemical Methane Potential and Enrichment of Specific Electroactive Communities from Nixtamalization Wastewater using Granular Activated Carbon as a Conductive Material

“…Prolixibacter had a relative abundance of 16%, 18%, and 11% in S, S0, and S10, respectively. It must be mentioned that Prolixibacter has been reported as a possible exoelectrogenic bacteria in microbial electrolysis cells [33] and in marine-sediment fuel cells [34]. Genus level with relative abundance lower than 1% were included in unclassified groups.…”

“…Moreover, its low cost [28,29] and its high conductivity (3000 µS•cm −1 ) [21] when compared to other conductive materials such as biochar (4 µS•cm −1 ) [30], magnetite (160 µS•cm −1 ) [31], or stainless steel (667 µS•cm −1 ) [32], make it a preferential material to promote DIET in order to improve methane production yields [17,33]. Additionally, metallic materials, such as stainless steel, have corrosion problems [34].…”

Thin liquid/gas diffusion layers for high-efficiency hydrogen production from water splitting

“… Interfacial and mechanical properties: high-corrosion resistance and excellent contacts with the adjacent parts (bipolar plate and catalyst layer), also maintain small effect on pressure drops in the flow channel. Carbon-based materials (carbon paper, or carbon cloth), which are typically used for LGDLs in PEMFCs [8,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43], are unsuitable for PEMECs due to the high operating potential and the highly oxidative environment of the oxygen-rich electrode [7,44]. The corrosion and consumption of the carbon will degrade the LGDL and result in bad conductivity and poor interfacial contacts, consequently decrease the performance and efficiency of PEMECs.…”

Effects of membrane electrode assembly properties on two-phase transport and performance in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells

“…(10) into equations (3)(4), the gas/liquid two-phase transport equations inside a hydrophilic LGDL along the x-direction can be rewritten in the following form: (11) In order to solve Equation (11), three boundary conditions are needed, as shown in LGDL is mainly related to current density, which is set to be [33].…”

“…Therefore, porous electrodes based on carbon paper or other carbon materials, which are widely used in PEMFCs, are not suitable for the anode side of a PEMEC [11]. Currently, titanium mesh and felt have been used as electrode materials for the anode of a PEMEC due to their highly corrosion resistances, excellently electrical conductivity and microstructural properties [12,13].…”