Increasing Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Catalyst Effectiveness Through Sputter Deposition

2 at 0.6 V! and equaled the performance of the baseline for an equivalent Pt loading. Sputter-depositing alternating layers of Pt and Nafion-carbon ink~NCI! onto the membrane did not increase the performance over the baseline as measured in amperes per centimeter squared due to the excessive thickness of the NCI ~the NCI accounted for 99.9% of the electrode thickness!. However, three and six layer Pt/NCI membrane electrode assemblies ~MEAs! resulted in Pt activities double that of the 905 A/g at 0.6 V achieved by the ink-based baseline. Decreasing the thickness of each NCI layer increased the performance of the six-layered Pt/NCI MEA from 0.132 to 0.170 A/cm 2 at 0.6 V, providing an activity of 2650 A/g at 0.6 V. It is likely that by further decreasing