Modeling of polymer electrolyte fuel cell performance with reformate fuel feed streams

Carbon monoxide poisoning of polymer electrolyte fuel cell anodes is a key problem to be overcome when operating on reformed fuels. CO adsorbs on the precious metal surface leading to substantial performance losses. Much recent work has explored this problem, using various Pt alloys in attempts to overcome the performance loss. In their studies of hydrogen oxidation on Pt and Pt alloy (Pt/Sn, Pt/Ru) electrodes exposed to H2/CO mixtures, Gasteiger et al. (1, 2) showed that a small oxidation current is observed before the onset of CO oxidative stripping (ca. 0.4 V) on Pt/Ru. However, these workers concluded that the observed current wa