Investigation of Carbon Loss on the Cathode during PEMFC operation

Carbon loss phenomena, such as partial hydrogen starvation and startup, have been investigated in previous works. Even for short times, these situations can be fatal and some mitigation was suggested to improve PEMFC durability. Small carbon loss occurs under ordinary PEMFC operation. Although this impact is less severe than for hydrogen starvation and startup, it is still large enough to cause the degradation of PEMFC cell performance after long-term operation. Carbon loss under PEMFC operation is investigated in this work with a physical model. These results suggest that high cell potential, high oxygen reduction activity, high humidity, and any imbalance of water vapor pressure in the cell affect the rate of carbon loss. The kinetics for oxygen reduction promotes carbon loss by reducing the solution potential at the fuel-cell cathode