Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy (한국수소및신에너지학회논문집)

The Korean Hydrogen and New Energy Society (한국수소및신에너지학회)
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Degradation of Membrane With Pinholes in PEMFC

고분자 전해질 연료전지에서 Pinhole 있는 막의 열화

  • Kim, Tae-Hee (Department of Chemical Engineering, Sunchon National University) ;
  • Lee, Ho (Department of Chemical Engineering, Sunchon National University) ;
  • Lim, Tae-Won (HMC Eco Technology Research Institute) ;
  • Park, Kwon-Pil (Department of Chemical Engineering, Sunchon National University)
  • Published : 2008.04.29
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Abstract

The most failure mode of PEM fuel cell is gas crossover caused by pinhole formation in MEAs. The degradation phenomena of MEA with pinholes were evaluated in various accelerated operation condition, such as OCV, low humidity and high partial pressure of oxygen. The performances of MEA with pinholes were almost same before and after normal 144 hours operation($70^{\circ}C$, $640mA/cm^2$, 65%RH $H_2/air$). The results of accelerated operation showed that OCV and low humidity condition more deteriorated MEA than gas crossover owing to pinholes. When oxygen was used as cathode gas, the pinholes of MEA were enlarged due to heat of combustion reaction on Pt catalyst of electrodes. This combustion reaction occurred at pinholes near gas inlet and resulted in local MEA failure.

Keywords

References

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