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Ultrahigh PEMFC Performance of a Thin‐Film, Dual‐electrode Assembly with Tailored Electrode Morphology
Author(s) -
Jung ChiYoung,
Kim TaeHyun,
Yi SungChul
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201301043
Subject(s) - membrane electrode assembly , electrode , proton exchange membrane fuel cell , materials science , nafion , chemical engineering , catalysis , monolith , electrochemistry , electrolyte , chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering
A dual‐electrode membrane electrode assembly (MEA) for proton exchange membrane fuel cells with enhanced polarization under zero relative humidity (RH) is fabricated by introducing a phase‐separated morphology in an agglomerated catalyst layer of Pt/C (platinum on carbon black) and Nafion. In the catalyst layer, a sufficient level of phase separation is achieved by dispersing the Pt catalyst and the Nafion dispersion in a mixed‐solvent system (propane‐1,2,3‐triol/1‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidinone).The high polymer chain mobility results in improved water uptake and regular pore‐size distribution with small pore diameters. The electrochemical performance of the dual‐film electrode assembly with different levels of phase separation is compared to conventional electrode assemblies. As a result, good performance at 0 % RH is obtained because self‐humidification is dramatically improved by attaching this dense and phase‐separated catalytic overlayer onto the conventional catalyst layer. A MEA prepared using the thin‐film, dual‐layered electrode exhibits 39‐fold increased RH stability and 28‐fold improved start‐up recovery time during the on–off operation relative to the conventional device. We demonstrate the successful operation of the dual‐layered electrode comprised of discriminatively phase‐separated agglomerates with an ultrahigh zero RH fuel‐cell performance reaching over 95 % performance of a fully humidified MEA.