Activation procedures characterization of MEA based on phosphoric acid doped PBI membranes

This work aims at better understanding the activation process of phosphoric acid doped PBI-based MEA. The phenomena involved in the activation of Celtec® – P1000 MEA were studied based on polarization curves, AC impedance spectroscopy combined with equivalent circuit modelling and cyclic voltammetry analysis. It was concluded that galvanostatic activation procedure enhanced Celtec® – P1000 MEA performance by increasing the catalyst activity and by decreasing the ohmic resistance. Also, galvanostatic and potential cycling procedures were applied to an in-house prepared MEA; for the same activation time, the galvanostatic allowed a deeper activation of the in-house prepared MEA than the potential cycling activation method. accepted that the humidification of the reactants is not necessary for high temperature PEMFC based on phosphoric acid doped PBI membrane, since water production at the cathode should be enough to ensure high performance of the fuel cell. In this work it is described the behavior of a PEMFC based on an in-house prepared MEA, after activation at different temperatures and relative humidities. It is shown that water has an enhanced effect on ohmic resistance during the PEMFC operation but can also have a detrimental effect on the cathode resistance due to migration of phosphoric acid outside MEA.