Document Type

Article

Subject Area(s)

Chemical Engineering

Abstract

The effect of humidity on the chemical stability of two types of membranes [i.e., perfluorosulfonic acid type (PFSA, Nafion 112) and biphenyl sulfone hydrocarbon type, (BPSH-35)] was studied by subjecting the membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) to open-circuit voltage (OCV) decay and potential cycling tests at elevated temperatures and low inlet-gas relative humidities. The BPSH-35 membranes showed poor chemical stability in ex situ Fenton tests compared to that of Nafion membranes. However, under fuel cell conditions, BPSH-35 MEAs outperformed Nafion 112 MEAs in both the OCV decay and potential cycling tests. For both membranes, (i) at a given temperature, membrane degradation was more pronounced at lower humidities and (ii) at a given relative humidity operation, increasing the cell temperature accelerated membrane degradation. Mechanical stability of these two types of membranes was also studied using relative humidity (RH) cycling. Due to decreased swelling and contraction during wet-up and dry-out cycles, Nafion 112 lasted longer than BPSH-35 membranes in the RH cycling test.

Rights

© The Electrochemical Society, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved. Except as provided under U.S. copyright law, this work may not be reproduced, resold, distributed, or modified without the express permission of The Electrochemical Society (ECS). The archival version of this work was published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society.

http://www.electrochem.org/

Publisher's link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/1.2806798

DOI: 10.1149/1.2806798

Download

Share

COinS