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

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