Defects on Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Components created by Particulate Contaminations and Mechanical Pressure

The technical cleanliness is a crucial quality aspect in modern production of sensible components due to the harmful properties of contaminations on these parts. The presence of particles poses a risk of damage, hence demanding high cleanliness standards for certain parts. Given the complexity of cleanliness measures, it is crucial to precisely understand the influence of contaminants to avoid unnecessary production costs. Thin and sensitive components, such as the catalytic-coated-membrane of a fuel cell, can be a weak point regarding the manufacturing or assembly process of fuel cells. It is known that the technical cleanliness of fuel cells can be a significant influence in production regarding the quality of components and too many or to big particles may damage the material and cause a lack of performance or even lead to a failure in the system. As the level of knowledge regarding the effect of particles to fuel cell components is low, the focus of this work is to determine a necessary cleanliness level in the production of fuel cells in order to reduce the costs caused by excessive cleaning. Therefore, a system was developed to press particles of different sizes and shapes into the different materials as part of a methodical test procedure and examining the resulting damage using static pressure. The tests reveal that round particles with a high hardness have the most impact on the materials as they penetrate punctual compared to angular particles. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the applied pressure has a significant impact on the damages to the material. The defects on the gas diffusion layers occurred faster while the catalytic coated membrane was only harmed by big particles.