Non-uniform Anode Design for High-Temperature Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells with Mitigated Hydrogen Starvation

Hydrogen starvation is one of the major challenges for practical application of fuel cells, which could seriously deteriorate the reliability and safety of the system with the occurrence of voltage reversal. High-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFCs) fed with reformate hydrogen are more liable to suffer from fuel starvation as a result of reduced hydrogen proportion and poisoning impurity of CO. To conquer this inconvenience, here, in this work, a non-uniform catalyst layer with a hydrogen storage function of palladium was developed according to the in-plane distribution characteristics of hydrogen. With the in situ storage and release of hydrogen within the lattice of palladium, fuel could be replenished at the site close to the outlet where fuel starvation could occur. As a result, the utilization of hydrogen is greatly promoted, and the voltage reversal caused by fuel starvation is also prohibited.