Real-time determination of CO2 production and estimation of adsorbate coverage on a proton exchange membrane fuel cell under oscillatory operation

A number of fuel cell relevant reactions are known to undergo kinetic instabilities under certain conditions. The majority of the experiments in such systems have been performed in liquid electrolyte systems on half-cell setups. Results for proton exchange membrane fuel cells fed with H₂/CO mixtures at the anode show that there can be a range of gas flow rate and current density where spontaneous potential oscillations take place. Despite the recent developments in this area, there are still many mechanistic aspects underlying the emergence of electrochemical oscillations that remain unknown. In the present contribution, we report results on the CO₂ production during the oxidation of carbon monoxide-containing hydrogen in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, as measured by online mass spectrometry. By extensive fitting and careful consideration of the proposed mechanism, we were able to estimate the coverage of hydrogen and CO during the oscillations. As no other approach seems capable to probe the adsorbate coverage in an operando fuel cell, our analyses access experimental hidden information that can be of high value for fuel cell research.