Study of Accelerated Test Protocol for PEFC Focusing on Carbon Corrosion

Carbon corrosion caused by rapid potential changes is presented. Test results with full-scale single cells suggest rapid voltage changes during start-up and shutdown can accelerate carbon corrosion significantly, without local or global fuel starvation. Impacts of carbon corrosion on material degradation and cell performance decay with various operation modes (e.g. voltage cycles, OCP hold and constant load) are also evaluated. The results indicate voltage cycles by start-up and shutdown, which advances carbon corrosion on cathode, accelerates cell performance decay with electrochemical surface area reduction and mass transport loss on cathode. The voltage cycle testing focusing on carbon corrosion is expected to be one of the promising test protocols for accelerated durability testing.