VLD technique for MEAs performance enhancement

MEA의 장기 성능 향상을 위한 VLD 기술 개발

For commercialization of polymer electrolytemembrane fuel cell (PEMFC), durability of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) has to be improved. Especially, long-term stability of MEA is one of the most important issues for frequent shut-down and start-up processes of PEMFC. The degradation of MEA could be attributed to chemical attack of hydrogen peroxide radicals that are formed at high cell voltages without any special treatment to remove residual hydrogen from anode gas channel after shut-down of the fuel cell. In this study, we investigated the long-term stability of MEA under different on/off operation conditions. Residential hydrogen gas was removed from the anode flow channel by purging air or nitrogen. Also, a dummy resistance was applied to the fuel cell to exhaust residential hydrogen at the anode. In these cases, MEA showed much more stable durability. Electrochemical characteristics of the fuel cell were measured byrepeating the on/off cycles with the hydrogen removal processes. Also, degradation of MEA components was examined by SEM, TEM and XRD analyses.