Membrane Degradation Mitigation of PEFC during Cold-Start Application of the Radical Quencher Ce3+-

Abstract

The degradation of the PEFC performance caused by repeated cold-starts under the low-humidity subzero conditions of −30°C had been reported to include the decomposition of the perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) membrane. In order to mitigate the degradation of the PFSA membrane and prevent the degradation of the PEFC performance, we incorporated Ce3+ in the PFSA membrane. We found that Ce3+ was able to prevent the decomposition of the PFSA membrane under the low-humidity subzero conditions of −30°C, while membrane and performance degradation seem to be only weakly correlated during repeated cold-starts.