Vehicle applications require efficient cold start ability and durability of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this study, various self-cold start strategies including purging the PEMFC at shutdown and using galvanostatic operation at startup are proposed. The cold start characteristics from −5°C of a single cell are experimentally investigated in situ on a laboratory scale. The amount of cumulated charge transfer density, corresponding to the amount of product water, is used as an index to quantify the cold start capability. Gas purge at shutdown before freeze is found to facilitate the PEMFC cold start, although the improvement is relatively small compared with other methods such as gradually increasing the current during startup. Microscopic studies of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) after cold start failure are conducted to determine material degradation due to ice formation.

中文翻译：

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聚合物电解质膜燃料电池的冷启动行为和冻结特性

车辆应用需要聚合物电解质膜燃料电池 (PEMFC) 的高效冷启动能力和耐用性。在这项研究中，提出了各种自冷启动策略，包括在停机时清除 PEMFC 和在启动时使用恒电流操作。单电池从 -5°C 的冷启动特性在实验室规模上进行了原位实验研究。累积电荷转移密度的量，对应于产物水的量，被用作量化冷启动能力的指标。发现冻结前关闭时的气体清除有助于 PEMFC 冷启动，尽管与其他方法（例如在启动期间逐渐增加电流）相比，改进相对较小。