Online Carbon Corrosion Analysis of a Novel, Alloyed PtTi/C in PEM Fuel Cells Using a Non-Dispersive-Infrared System

In this study, we present membrane electrode assembly based fuel cell tests of a novel carbon supported alloyed platinum titanium oxygen reduction reaction catalyst. The support stability of the catalyst was studied via an accelerated stress test. Furthermore, the cathode gas exhaust stream was analyzed with a non-dispersive-infrared system, which provides insights into occurring carbon degradation mechanisms by the online quantification of carbon species, namely carbon monoxide and -dioxide. The results gained provide evidence that the main support degradation emerges while cycling between 1 and 1.5 V. The data also suggests that the fuel cell performance is highly affected by the carbon degradation during stability tests. These and future results will help to improve carbon based support materials by understanding the carbon degradation processes occurring in fuel cell devices.