Composite anode for CO tolerance proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Fuel of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) mostly comes from reformate containing CO, which will poison the fuel cell electrocatalyst. The effect of CO on the performance of PEMFC is studied in this paper. Several electrode structures are investigated for CO containing fuel. The experimental results show that thin-film catalyst electrode has higher specific catalyst activity and traditional electrode structure can stand for CO poisoning to some extent. A composite electrode structure is proposed for improving CO tolerance of PEMFCs. With the same catalyst loading, the new composite electrode has improved cell performance than traditional electrode with PtRu/C electrocatalyst for both pure hydrogen and CO/H2. The EDX test of composite anode is also performed in this paper, the effective catalyst distribution is found in the composite anode.