Design of Membrane Electrode Assembly with Non-precious Metal Catalyst for Self-humidifying Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Abstract

AbstractHigh cost is one of the key factors restricting the industrialization and commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this paper, a low-cost membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is prepared by using a self-made non-precious metal catalyst. Through the polarization curve test of fuel cell, the optimal loading of Fe-N-S-C catalyst and the optimal ratio with Nafion ionomer are studied. When the loading of Fe-N-S-C catalyst is 2.0 mg cm−2 and the ratio of Nafion ionomer to Fe-N-S-C catalyst is 3:7, the performance of the PEMFC is the best. The performance of MEA under different relative humidity (RH) and inlet pressure is also explored. The experimental results show that the MEA can still maintain good performance under the condition of 40% RH, which shows that this MEA has a certain self-humidifying ability. Because the non-precious metal catalyst layer is too thick, the performance of PEMFC can be improved by increasing the inlet pressure appropriately. The durability of MEA with non-precious metal catalyst is poor, and there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the stability and durability.