Fatigue and creep to leak tests of proton exchange membranes using pressure-loaded blisters

In this study, three commercially available proton exchange membranes (PEMs) are biaxially tested using pressure-loaded blisters to characterize their resistance to gas leakage under either static (creep) or cyclic fatigue loading. The pressurizing medium, air, is directly used for leak detection. These tests are believed to be more relevant to fuel cell applications than quasi-static uniaxial tensile-to-rupture tests because of the use of biaxial cyclic and sustained loading and the use of gas leakage as the failure criterion. They also have advantages over relative humidity cycling test, in which a bare PEM or catalyst coated membrane is clamped with gas diffusion media and flow field plates and subjected to cyclic changes in relative humidity, because of the flexibility in allowing controlled mechanical loading and accelerated testing. Nafion® NRE-211 membranes are tested at three different temperatures and the time–temperature superposition principle is used to construct stress-lifetime master curve. Tested at 90 °C, 2%RH extruded Ion Power® N111-IP membranes have a longer lifetime than Gore™-Select® 57 and Nafion® NRE-211 membranes.