Study on durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack based on mesoporous carbon supported platinum catalysts under dynamic cycles conditions

Insufficient durability still restricts the large-scale commercialization of fuel cells, rapid degradation of catalyst is considered to be the main reason, while support also plays an important role. In this study, the cyclic potential scanning with varies harshness to the catalysts are performed firstly. The membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) are assembled to stack to perform the accelerate durability test (ADT) under New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) for 1000 h. The results show that, the durability of self-made catalysts is better than the commercial, and the voltage decay rate of commercial-MEA-Stack (35 μV h −1 ) is significantly higher than the self-made-MEA-Stack (5 μV h −1 ). Before and after the durability test, the charge and mass transfer impedance of S-MEA-Stack changes little, while that of C-MEA-Stack increases. Post-characterizations show that the self-made catalysts have better stability. In conclusion, the catalyst layer binding network based on mesoporous carbon has a more stable structure, which ensures the effective gas transport, while the high specific surface area structure is conducive to uniform distribution and stability of ionomers. Pt nanoparticles in mesoporous carbon can avoid the agglomeration and sintering, and the poisoning effect of sulfonate, thus improves the durability of the catalyst layer. • RDE test results show the S-Catalyst durability is better than that of C-Catalyst. • Voltage degradation rate of C-MEA-Stack is higher than that of S-MEA-Stack. • Post-characterizations show that the S-Catalyst has the stronger robustness. • Mesoporous structure allows the formation of more TPBs with the same Pt loading. • Internal Pt nanoparticles makes it difficult to be sintered and agglomerated.