Poisoning Effects of Cerium Oxide (CeO2) on the Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs)

ChemEngineering

Mardit Matian¹  Jan Van herle²  Hossein Pourrahmani² 

[1] EH Group, Chemin de Vuarpillière 27, 1260 Nyon, Switzerland;Group of Energy Materials, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1951 Sion, Switzerland;

关键词: proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC);    cerium oxide poisoning effect;    focused ion-beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM);    energy dispersive X-ray (EDX);    I-V characteristics;    membrane electrode assembly (MEA);   

DOI  :  10.3390/chemengineering6030036

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In this study, the poisoning effects of cerium oxide (${\mathrm{CeO}}_2$) as the contaminant on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are evaluated. An experimental setup was developed to analyze the performance characteristic (I-V) curves in contaminated and non-contaminated conditions. Focused ion-beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) cross-section images were obtained as an input for the energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The results of the EDX analysis verified the presence of ${\mathrm{CeO}}_2$ in the contaminated membrane electrode assembly (MEA), in addition to fluorine and sulfur. EDX analysis also revealed that as a result of ${\mathrm{CeO}}_2$ contamination, sulfur and fluorine would be distributed all around the MEA, instead of being only in the membrane. The results illustrate that hydrofluoric acid (HF), sulfuric acid (${\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4$), and fluorinated polymer fragments are released, which enhance the crossover of the reactant gases through the membrane, hence reducing the cell’s performance. The I-V characteristic curves proved that the non-contaminated PEMFC setup had double the performance of the contaminated PEMFC.

【 授权许可】

Unknown