Effects of anode flooding on the performance degradation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

• Anode flooding can occur by direct flow of condensed water in humidified fuel.
• Anode flooding induces local fuel starvation and high potential in the anode.
• High potential locally present in the anode results in anode carbon corrosion.
• Anode carbon corrosion plays a key role in MEA degradation by anode flooding.

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stacks in a fuel cell vehicle can be inevitably exposed to harsh environments such as cold weather in winter, causing water flooding by the direct flow of condensed water to the electrodes. In this study, anode flooding was experimentally investigated with condensed water generated by cooling the anode gas line during a long-term operation (∼1600 h). The results showed that the performance of the PEMFC was considerably degraded. After the long-term experiment, the thickness of the anode decreased, and the ratio of Pt to carbon in the anode increased. Moreover, repeated fuel starvation of the half-cell severely oxidized the carbon surface due to the high induced potential (>1.5 VRHE). The cyclic voltammogram of the anode in the half-cell experiments indicated that the characteristic feature of the oxidized carbon surface was similar to that of the anode in the single cell under anode flooding conditions during the long-term experiment. Therefore, repeated fuel starvation by anode flooding caused severe carbon corrosion in the anode because the electrode potential locally increased to >1.0 VRHE. Consequently, the density of the tri-phase boundary decreased due to the corrosion of carbons supporting the Pt nanoparticles in the anode.