Preparation and performance evaluation of membrane electrode assemblies for polymer electrolyte fuel cell

Abstract

In order to evaluate performance characteristics of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) for polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), time commercial available Nafion® membranes (112, 115, and 117), and Pt/C, PtNi/C and PtNiCo/C electrocatalysts were used in the fabrication of the MEAs by using transfer printing technique. The electrocatalyst layer of the MEA has been made by using a slurry of carbon-supported catalyst, Nafion®-ionomers and glycerin. The effects of the thickness of Nafion® membranes, electrocatalysts and the operating conditions (i.e. temperature, reactant gas pressure, and composition) on the performance of the MEA were investigated in the PEFC single cell. The performance of the MEA made from Nafion® 112, 115, and 117 membrane for O2/H2 cell were 1.16, 0.82, and 0.54 A/cm2 at 0.6V. An increase of reactants pressures up to 3 atm has stronger effect on the performance of Air/H2 cell than on that of O2/H2 cell. The performances of the MEA made from PtNi/C alloy catalyst for O2/H2 and Air/H2 cells at 80°C were 0.86 and 0.48 A/cm2 at 0.6V, respectively, and in the case of PtNiCo/C alloy catalyst, the MEAs for O2/H2 and Air/H2 cells showed similar performance.