Insight into the evolution of membrane chemical degradation in proton exchange membrane fuel cells:From theoretical analysis to model developing

The chemical degradation of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) causes the changes in membrane properties and morphology, which directly affects the cell performance and membrane degradation. In this work, the changes of PEM during the chemical degradation are theoretically analyzed at both microscopic and mesoscopic levels. Based on the theoretical study, a bidirectionally coupled physical model of PEM fuel cell (PEMFC) performance and PEM chemical degradation is developed, which is used to investigate the evolutions of cell performance and chemical degradation. It can be found that the open circuit voltage first increases slightly and then decreases with time, and the ohmic loss increases rapidly under accelerated degradation conditions. The membrane chemical degradation is analyzed in terms of four aspects: the mass loss rate of the membrane, the region of pronounced degradation, the contribution of different degradation mechanisms and the proportion of ionomer species remaining. Furthermore, the effect of operating conditions on the degradation is examined. The degradation is most sensitive to voltage and has the fastest rate at high voltage, high temperature, high gas pressure and relative humidity of 60%. This work provides a deep insight into the PEM chemical degradation, which is instructive for the long-term prediction of PEMFC lifetime.