The invention relates to a method for rapidly activating a
proton exchange membrane fuel
cell. The method comprises the following steps: 1, enabling a
proton exchange membrane fuel
cell stack to be inan on-load state with rated power of 5%-30%, and then opening an inlet and outlet valve of fuel; 2, waiting for 3-10 s, introducing an
oxidizing agent, and operating for 3-60 s; 3, gradually loadingto 5%-90% of the rated power according to the step length of 5%-30% of the rated power, wherein the interval between every
two step lengths is 3-60 s; 4, reducing the
electric potential of the singlecathode side of the fuel
cell stack to be below 0.1 V by adopting a mode, and maintaining the potential for 0.05-60 s; and 5, recovering the power of the fuel cell stack to 95-120% of the rated working point power, and operating for 5-60 s. According to the invention, a universal fundamental activation and
recovery method is provided for the nature of performance degradation of the
proton exchangemembrane fuel cell, that is, the
electric potential of the
cathode side of the fuel cell is reduced, so that the
cathode electric potential of the fuel cell can be reduced in many ways, and the selectivity, the
operability and the convenience are greatly improved.