The pinhole effect on proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) current density distribution and temperature distribution

The proton exchange membrane (PEM) is a critical portion of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). However, it is strongly influenced by pinhole defects owing to degradation during its operation or manufacture. Such defects may accelerate chemical polymer decomposition, eventually causing fuel cell failure and other safety issues. Thus, it is necessary to detect and characterize pinhole degradation while determining the effect of pinhole on electrochemical behavior and fuel cell performance. Herein, pinholes of different sizes (10 and 100 µm) were fabricated on a 50-cm2 catalyst-coated membrane (CCM) and characterized using commercial current scan shunt (CSS) S++ Simulation Services (Hephas Energy) to investigate the effects of pinhole size on current density and temperature distributions of the PEMFC. Our analyses show that hydrogen crossover from the anode to the cathode through a pinhole can cause hydrogen diffusion and a hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) on the cathode electrode surface under certain conditions. Consequently, local reverse currents and hot spots are detected around the pinhole position under open-circuit voltage (OCV) and the corresponding current and temperature distribution trends are uniform. Conversely, the reverse current immediately disappeared from the current distribution map because water exists under operation conditions, resulting in membrane swelling and pinhole sealing. Thus, hydrogen crossover decreased and local reverse currents reappeared as a result of anode overpressure during fuel cell operation. The local reverse current becomes weaker when using the same-sized pinhole under the same anode overpressure because the overall current density increases. Furthermore, owing to the presence of water, the capillary force for the 100-µm pinhole was higher than that for the 10-µm pinhole, indicating that more anode overpressure is required to generate a local reverse current. Thus, the position and size of the pinhole can be effectively detected using in situ characterization.