Membrane electrode assembly steaming as a novel pre-conditioning procedure in proton exchange membrane fuel cell

•Cell steaming was applied as a novel pre-conditioning of PEMFC.•Cell steaming is an effective method for enhancing MEA performance.•Maximum power density enhances to 30% by cell steaming pre-conditioning.•Cell steaming decreases various resistances, especially mass transport resistance.

In this research, a novel procedure for membrane electrode assembly (MEA) pre-conditioning was introduced based on proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) steaming. Cell steaming was carried out by injection of steam simultaneously to the anode and cathode sides of PEMFC for 2.5 h. It was found that cell steaming enhances MEA performance compared to identical Un-steamed-MEAs which were conditioned by the different conventional methods: constant voltage at 0.6 V (same as Steamed-MEA), and cell voltage cycling; 963 mW cm−2 vs. 703 mW cm−2 and 645 mW cm−2, respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results demonstrated that cell steaming is an effective procedure for decreasing of ohmic resistance and charge and mass transfer limitations. The mass transfer resistance decreased when the cell steaming was done in the MEA; 0.0055 Ω cm2 for Steamed-MEA vs. 0.0368 Ω cm2 and 0.0291 Ω cm2 for Un-steamed-MEA-1 and Un-steamed-MEA-2, respectively.

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