The durability of sealing material is one of the major challenges to the overall lifetime of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). In order to study the failure mode and aging mechanism of fuel cell seals, this paper focuses on the most widely used commercial silicone rubber, and an ex-situ accelerated aging method was employed by simulating the circumstance of PEMFC, including higher temperature and clamping force, lower pH value and F⁻ with higher concentration. The main factors that affect the performance of the seal were obtained through the test of their morphologies and mechanical properties. The failure mode of the aging mechanism of the rubbers were analyzed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), attenuated-total-reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), mass loss, compression set (CS), etc. It was found that temperature played an important role in the deterioration of seal performance, and the change of the parameters of the compression set with time conformed the dynamic empirical formula, which provides the experimental basis for the lifetime prediction of the seals.

密封材料的耐用性是质子交换膜燃料电池（PEMFC）整个使用寿命的主要挑战之一。为了研究燃料电池密封件的失效模式和老化机理，本文以应用最广泛的商用硅橡胶为研究对象，并通过模拟PEMFC的高温，夹紧力等情况，采用异位加速老化方法。 ，降低pH值和F ^-浓度更高。通过测试密封的形态和机械性能，可以得出影响密封性能的主要因素。通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM），能量色散光谱仪（EDS），衰减全反射红外光谱仪（ATR-IR），质量损失，压缩永久变形（CS）等分析了橡胶老化机理的失效模式。发现温度在密封性能下降中起重要作用，压缩永久变形参数随时间的变化符合动态经验公式，为密封寿命的预测提供了实验依据。