Evaluation of High Oxygen Permeability Ionomer (HOPI) Oxygen Permeability for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs)

Abstract

The performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is sensitive to Pt loading in the cathode catalyst layer, with lower Pt loadings significantly increasing the oxygen transport resistance of the catalyst-ionomer interface when using perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomers. The oxygen permeability is suspected to be locally decreased at Pt interfaces due to ionomer densification caused by the Pt-ionomer interactions. However, due to the high cost of Pt, it is important to be able to reduce Pt loadings without increasing oxygen transport resistance. With this goal in mind, new precommercial high oxygen permeability ionomers (HOPIs) with blocky backbone units are being studied. These HOPIs show significantly lower local oxygen transport resistance in fuel cells as well as greater efficiency and durability. However, there was a question of whether HOPI’s higher in-situ oxygen permeability is due solely to reduced densification or if it is also due to increased bulk permeability of the films. Here we evaluated this question using a unique oxygen permeability measurement apparatus that measures the oxygen permeability of thin-films supported on mesoporous substrates. This apparatus allows films to be characterized without the polarized Pt surfaces used in other oxygen permeability diagnostics, providing insights into the bulk permeability of cast thin-films with minimized substrate effects. This presentation will present our findings of the oxygen permeability of pristine thin-film HOPIs characterized against that of the baseline PFSA ionomer. Results show that the HOPI is significantly more oxygen permeable than the baseline. This finding is supported by our molecular dynamics simulations of these ionomer films. This increased bulk film oxygen permeability indicates that a significant portion of the decreased oxygen transport resistance in the cathodes is associated with the greater bulk permeability of these films and not just local Pt interface effects.This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Fuel Cell Technologies Office, Award Number DE-EE0008822.