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- Conflict of Interest
- In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Publication history
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Received February 7, 2024
Accepted May 1, 2024
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This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits
unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Change of Mechanical Properties of e-PTFE Support by Electrochemical Degradation in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell
Abstract
In polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), the cost and durability are main challenges to commercialization. To
achieve the long-term durability target, the durability of PEMFC materials should be further improved. In this paper, we
investigated the chemical and electrochemical degradation of the expanded polytetrafl uoroethylene (e-PTFE) support and
examined how it infl uences the mechanical properties of the e-PTFE support. We conducted the Fenton test and open circuit
voltage (OCV) holding and analyzed the chemical and physical structural changes of the e-PTFE support by utilizing Fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and tensile test. After the chemical
and electrochemical degradations, the molecular bonds of e-PTFE were broken, and the microstructures of e-PTFE were
deformed. As the result the mechanical properties of e-PTFE showed signifi cant decrease. Consequently, our results show
that the e-PTFE support is deteriorated chemically during PEMFC operation, and this chemical degradation lead reduction
of mechanical strength.
