2024 Volume 73 Issue 7 Pages 175-180
It has been pointed out that when stainless steel bipolar plates are used in PEFC, metal ions eluted due to corrosion contaminate the MEA and degrade cell performance. However, it was not clear whether the contamination mainly occurs from the anode side or the cathode side. In this study, a single cell was operated using bare type 304 stainless steel bipolar plates in contact with MEA and the cross sectional distribution of iron, chromium and nickel in the MEA was analyzed by ToF-SIMS. The results showed that iron, chromium and nickel were enriched in the anode side GDL and CCM. These results indicated that the leaching of metal ions from the anode side stainless steel bipolar plate was the main cause of MEA contamination.
