Mechanism of Catalyst Degradation in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
Open accessAbstract
A mechanism of catalyst particle growth in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) by Ostwald ripening is presented. Particle growth occurs as a coupled process involving platinum ion transport through aqueous liquid and/or ionomer, and electron transport through a carbon support. The dominating factor in degradation of a catalyst supported on carbon is the presence of platinum ions in solution (in liquid and/or in ionomer). Experiments were conducted on commercial PEMFC electrodes in three liquids, solution, dilute acid solution, and deionized water. Pt particle size grew from to after in solution. By contrast, no detectable growth occurred in dilute acid or in deionized water. This demonstrates that the higher the Pt ion concentration, the faster the kinetics. The role of electronic conduction through support was verified by conducting experiments in solution on Pt supported on an electronically insulating material, namely alumina. While significant growth occurred in Pt supported on carbon, no detectable growth occurred in Pt supported on alumina. This observation is in complete accord with the model, and demonstrates the role of electronic transport on degradation. That is, when supported on alumina, lack of an electronically conducting path suppresses degradation even with present in solution.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Cullity, B. D., & Weymouth, J. W. (1957) · American Journal of Physics · doi:10.1119/1.1934486 · Cited by 17,972 · see citing works
The kinetics of precipitation from supersaturated solid solutions
Lifshitz, I. M., & Slyozov, V. V. (1961) · Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids · doi:10.1016/0022-3697(61)90054-3 · Cited by 8,503 · see citing works
Phase Transformations in Metals and Alloys
Porter, D. A., & Easterling, K. E. (1992) · doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-3051-4 · Cited by 4,904 · see citing works
Gasteiger, H. A., Kocha, S. S., Sompalli, B., & Wagner, F. T. (2005) · Applied Catalysis B: Environmental · doi:10.1016/j.apcatb.2004.06.021 · Cited by 4,876 · see citing works
Theory of precipitate change by redissolution
Wagner, C. (1961) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,943 · see citing works
Instability of Pt∕C Electrocatalysts in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
Ferreira, P. J., la O’, G. J., Shao‐Horn, Y., Morgan, D. D., Makharia, R. R., Kocha, S. S., & Gasteiger, H. A. (2005) · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · doi:10.1149/1.2050347 · Cited by 1,492 · see citing works
Theorie der Alterung von Niederschlägen durch Umlösen (Ostwald‐Reifung)
Wagner, C. G. (1961) · Zeitschrift für Elektrochemie Berichte der Bunsengesellschaft für physikalische Chemie · doi:10.1002/bbpc.19610650704 · Cited by 1,255 · see citing works
Modern thermodynamics: from heat engines to dissipative structures
(1999) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.36-4495 · Cited by 1,180 · see citing works
Kinetic Model of Platinum Dissolution in PEMFCs
Darling, R. M., & Meyers, J. P. (2003) · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · doi:10.1149/1.1613669 · Cited by 688 · see citing works
Surface Area Loss of Supported Platinum in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells
Wilson, M. S., Garzón, F. H., Sickafus, K. E., & Gottesfeld, S. (1993) · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · doi:10.1149/1.2220925 · Cited by 411 · see citing works
Effect of Voltage on Platinum Dissolution
Wang, X. P., Kumar, R., & Myers, D. J. (2006) · Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters · doi:10.1149/1.2180536 · Cited by 334 · see citing works
Carbon-supported Pt nanoparticles as catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells
Liu, Z., Gan, L. M., Hong, L., Chen, W., & Lee, J. Y. (2005) · Journal of Power Sources · doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2004.07.012 · Cited by 305 · see citing works
More, K. L., Borup, R. L., & Reeves, K. (2006) · ECS Transactions · doi:10.1149/1.2356192 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Chalkova, E., Pague, M. B., Fedkin, M. V., et al. (2005) · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · doi:10.1149/1.1895225 · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Topics in metallurgical thermodynamics
DEVEREUX, O. F. (1983) · Wiley eBooks · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Phenomenon Analysis of PEFC for Automotive Use(1) Membrane Degradation Behavior During OCV Hold Test
Ohma, A., Suga, S., Yamamoto, S., & Shinohara, K. (2006) · ECS Transactions · doi:10.1149/1.2356173 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Characterization of Catalyst Layer Structural Changes in PEMFC as a Function of Durability Testing
Li, J., He, P., Wang, K., et al. (2006) · ECS Transactions · doi:10.1149/1.2356194 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Accelerated Degradation Tests for Pt/C Catalysts in Sulfuric Acid
Ornelas, R., Stassi, A., Modica, E., et al. (2006) · ECS Transactions · doi:10.1149/1.2356184 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- R. Ornelas, A. Stassi, E. Modica, A. S. Arico, and V. Antonucci, ECS Transactions, 3͑1͒, 633 ͑2006͒.
- K. L. More, R. Borup, and K. S. Reeves, ECS Transactions, 3͑1͒, 717 ͑2006͒.
- A. Ohma, S. Suga, S. Yamamoto, and K. Shinohara, ECS Transactions, 3͑1͒, 519 ͑2006͒.
- J. Li, P. He, K. Wang, M. Davis, and S. Ye, ECS Transactions, 3, 743 ͑2006͒.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Wang, Y.-J., Zhao, N., Fang, B., Li, H., Bi, X. T., & Wang, H. (2015) · Chemical Reviews · doi:10.1021/cr500519c · Cited by 1,267 · see citing works
Noncarbon Support Materials for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell Electrocatalysts
Wang, Y.-J., Wilkinson, D. P., & Zhang, J. (2011) · Chemical Reviews · doi:10.1021/cr100060r · Cited by 801 · see citing works
Ren, P., Pei, P., Li, Y., Wu, Z., Chen, D., & Huang, S. (2020) · Progress in Energy and Combustion Science · doi:10.1016/j.pecs.2020.100859 · Cited by 737 · see citing works
- Authors
- Virkar, A. V., & Zhou, Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Utah (US)
- Venue
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society
- Publisher
- The Electrochemical Society
- Published
- 2007
- Volume
- 154
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- B540
- ISSN
- 0013-4651 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1991015819
- Cited by
- 133
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 6.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE‐FG02‐, FG0203ER46086)
- University of Utah
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Fuel Cells and Related Materials
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Catalytic Processes in Materials Science
- Keywords
- catalyst deactivation, Ostwald ripening, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, ionomers, carbon support, electronic conduction, Pt/Al2O3 catalyst, fuel cell electrodes
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
