Investigating Membrane Degradation in Low-Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC)

Abstract

Due to emergence of clean, green and digital electric mobility, there is huge demand of electro-chemical devices such as battery driven electric vehicle or/and proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell driven electric vehicles. Unfortunately, due to high cost, declined electro-chemical performance and poor durability, the global commercialization of electro-chemical conversion and storage devices is being hampered. PEM fuel cell driven electric vehicle has several advantages over battery driven electric vehicle such as cost, efficiency, operability and most importantly energy densities. However, the durability of components of PEM fuel cell such as membrane, electro-catalyst and bipolar plates is on of major challenges in PEM fuel cell. Therefore, understanding the degradation behavior and its mechanism in advanced functional materials such as proton conducting membrane followed by its mitigation is a crucial step to enhance the stability of PEM fuel cells. The detailed investigations were carried out to identify the electro-chemical, physical and process parameters causing membrane degradation under real-time operation of PEMFC. The membrane thinning, pin-hole formation, polymer backbone detachment and peroxide radical attacks are some of factors causing membrane degradation and affecting PEMFC performance.