Influence of Gas Composition on the Polymer Membrane Fuel Cell (PEFC) Performance

Kurzfassung

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are one of the most interesting alternatives for a pollution-free energy production. One of the major challenges in the development of PEFCs is to exploit the whole capacity that inherits a given membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Mass transport effects lead to an inhomogeneous electrochemical activity over the electrode area. In order to investigate in detail the influence of gas composition on the cell performance and to elucidate mass transport effects in the cell current-voltage curves and electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) were recorded. The cathode of the PEFC was fed with gas with different oxygen content ranging from 100% to 5%. The other gas component was helium or nitrogen. Results can be used to improve cell components, to validate models and to detect inappropriate detrimental operating conditions of the fuel cell.