Platinum Dissolution in Fuel Cell Electrodes: Enhanced Degradation from Surface Area Assessment in Automotive Accelerated Stress Tests

Automotive fuel cells are plagued by high platinum-based cathode catalyst costs exacerbated by high catalyst loadings to circumvent performance losses induced by typical urban drive cycles. Accelerated durability tests are commonly used to evaluate the impact of nano-structure and/or operating conditions on cathode catalyst loss rates. To map out loss rates the electrochemical surface area (ECSA) of the catalyst is periodically monitored. Herein the accelerated stress testing was performed 25,000 times by imposing perturbations from 0.9 V to 0.6 V in a triangular wave profile while the ECSA was measured by assessing the hydrogen adsorption/desorption region with a lower potential limit of 0.025 V at intermittent points during the triangular wave perturbations. The ECSA loss observed during the 25,000 triangle wave cycles is 7% when measured only 2 times, but 26.3% when measured 250 times. The exacerbated losses during frequent low potential ECSA measurements suggest a restructuring of the catalyst surface due to the formation of a protective β-oxide, as seen by alterations in the cyclic voltammtric profile and particle size distribution.