Chemical aging of sealing gasket of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Abstract As the key sealing part of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), the gasket is easily damaged in acidic solution and wet air for a long time in PEMFC, resulting in unsafe and unstable operation of PEMFC. In this paper, the regular solution (RS) and accelerated durability test (ADT) solution in PEMFC were prepared to study the aging damage process of silicone rubber gasket, and the attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (ATR‐FTIR) was used to analyze the surface changes of gaskets soaked in solutions. The results showed that the weight loss of samples increased with the soaking time in both ADT solution and RS solution, and the damage of samples in ADT solution was faster and more serious than that in RS solution. Meanwhile, the microstructure diagram also indicated that the damage of the samples in ADT solution was more serious than that in the RS solution. The ATR‐FTIR analysis results showed that the intensity of characteristic wave peaks of samples at 706, 787, 867, 1006, 1071, 1260, and 2961cm −1 in ADT solution decreased faster than that in RS solution, which was consistent with the results of weight analysis and microstructure analysis.