The released small particles could
further migrate to the surface of membrane at anode side and
migrate to interface of gas diffusion layer and catalyst layer, leading
to the decay of the overall fuel cell performance. Generally, most of
the works reported in literature are focused on the degradation
mechanism of silicone rubbers under different conditions or the
comparison of silicone rubbers with other elastic materials. However,
the degradation of silicone rubbers with different hardness
has not been reported.