Effects of anode flooding on the performance degradation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stacks in a fuel cell vehicle can be inevitably exposed to harsh environments such as cold weather in winter, causing water flooding by the direct flow of condensed water to the electrodes. In this study, anode flooding was experimentally investigated with condensed water generated by cooling the anode gas line during a long-term operation (similar to 1600 h). The results showed that the performance of the PEMFC was considerably degraded. After the long-term experiment, the thickness of the anode decreased, and the ratio of Pt to carbon in the anode increased. Moreover, repeated fuel starvation of the half-cell severely oxidized the carbon surface due to the high induced potential (>1.5 VRHE). The cyclic voltammogram of the anode in the half-cell experiments indicated that the characteristic feature of the oxidized carbon surface was similar to that of the anode in the single cell under anode flooding conditions during the long-term experiment Therefore, repeated fuel starvation by anode flooding caused severe carbon corrosion in the anode because the electrode potential locally increased to >1.0 VRHE. Consequently, the density of the tri-phase boundary decreased due to the corrosion of carbons supporting the Pt nanoparticles in the anode. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.