Characterization of Membrane Degradation Growth in Fuel Cells Using X-ray Computed Tomography

Abstract

Perfluorosulfonic acid ionomer membranes are subjected to simultaneous chemical and mechanical degradation under fuel cell operation. Despite the importance of membrane durability, the understanding of its structural degradation and failure modes has been considerably restricted by conventional 2D imaging. In this work, non-invasive micro X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is adopted to visualize the 3D membrane decay at different life stages during combined chemical and mechanical degradation. A detailed survey exhibits damage density of 6 and 10 cracks per mm2 observed at the near-final and final end of life stages respectively. Through-thickness membrane cracks with unbranched I-shaped cracks and Y- and X- shaped cracks with one and two branches respectively are observed. The observed damage development at each life stage is correlated to supplementary diagnostic data including hydrogen leak rate, open circuit voltage, and tensile strength. In particular, large X-shaped cracks formed due to embrittlement from underlying chemical degradation are deemed to have a critical impact on the eventual failure development by facilitating large hydrogen leaks. Overall, the comprehensive 3D perspective enabled by XCT imparts new knowledge pertaining to the degradation process, and could also be extended to other fuel cell failure modes and degradation mechanisms.