ABSTRACT
Cost and durability are major challenges for the commercialization of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) (Antolini et al., 2006; Borup et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2008). Great strides in PEMFC research have achieved long-term operation under near-ideal operating conditions, but the durability still needs to be improved under more realistic conditions for a wide range of operating conditions (Debe et al., 2006). For instance, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has set a minimum lifetime target of 5000 h under external environmental conditions (–40°C to +40°C) for PEMFCs for automotive applications. “is target is increased to 20,000 h for buses and 40,000 h for stationary applications. “erefore, detailed understanding of the failure modes and degradation mechanisms of fuel cell components and developing design improvements to mitigate or eliminate degradation are required to meet these stringent requirements.
