Impact of cation contamination on Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell performance

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells operate at low temperatures and require platinum to achieve acceptable performance. In order to reduce costs and improve performance of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells, scientists have focused efforts on developing novel alloy and core-shell catalysts consisting of Pt and other metals such as Co, Ni or Pd. These metals can leach out of the catalyst layer into the membrane where they can exist in a cationic form. Several ex-situ experiments have shown that the presence of cations in nafion can significantly affect membrane properties such as water absorption, ionic mobility and conductivity, water transference and gas transport1,2,3,4, which in turn can be expected to affect fuel cell performance. Indeed, this has been confirme