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Carbon-Support Requirements for Highly Durable Fuel Cell Operation

  • Chapter
Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Durability

Abstract

Owing to its unique electrical and structural properties, high surface area carbon has found widespread use as a catalyst support material in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) electrodes. The highly dynamic operating conditions in automotive applications require robust and durable catalyst support materials. In this chapter, carbon corrosion kinetics of commercial conventional-carbon-supported membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) are presented. Carbon corrosion was investigated under various automotive fuel cell operating conditions. Fuel cell system start/stop and anode local hydrogen starvation are two major contributors to carbon corrosion. Projections from these studies indicate that conventional-carbon-supported MEAs fall short of meeting automotive the durability targets of PEMFCs. MEAs made of different carbon support materials were evaluated for their resistance to carbon corrosion under accelerated test conditions. The results show that graphitized-carbon-supported MEAs are more resistant to carbon corrosion than nongraphitized carbon materials. Fundamental model analyses incorporating the measured carbon corrosion kinetics were developed for start/stop and local hydrogen starvation conditions. The combination of experiment and modeling suggests that MEAs with corrosion-resistant carbon supports are promising material approaches to mitigate carbon corrosion during automotive fuel cell operation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fuel Cell Activities, General Motors, 10 Carriage St., Honeoye Falls, NY, 14472-0603, USA

    Paul T. Yu, Wenbin Gu, Jingxin Zhang, Rohit Makharia, Frederick T. Wagner & Hubert A. Gasteiger

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  1. Paul T. Yu
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  2. Wenbin Gu
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  3. Jingxin Zhang
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  4. Rohit Makharia
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  5. Frederick T. Wagner
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  6. Hubert A. Gasteiger
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Electrochemistry LaboratoryPaul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

    Felix N. Büchi

  2. Department Molecular Science and Technology, Doshisha University, Kyotanabe, Kyoto, 610-0321, Japan

    Minoru Inaba (Faculty of Engineering) (Faculty of Engineering)

  3. BASF Fuel Cell GmbH Industrial Park Hoechst, G865 D-65926 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Thomas J. Schmidt

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Yu, P.T., Gu, W., Zhang, J., Makharia, R., Wagner, F.T., Gasteiger, H.A. (2009). Carbon-Support Requirements for Highly Durable Fuel Cell Operation. In: Büchi, F.N., Inaba, M., Schmidt, T.J. (eds) Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Durability. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85536-3_3

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