Electrochemical Activity and Catalyst Utilization of Low Pt and Thickness Controlled Membrane Electrode Assemblies

An improved catalyst deposition methodology based on a piezo-electric printing technique has been developed and used to fabricate catalyst coated membranes (CCM) with thin catalyst layers (1−5 μm) and ultra-low Pt loadings (0.02−0.12 mgPt/cm2). The performance of these CCMs was examined in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The catalyst utilization was observed to increase with decreasing catalyst layer thickness (decreasing Pt loading). The printed CCM with two layers containing an ultra-low Pt loading (0.02 mgPt/cm2) exhibited Pt utilizations of 100%. Neglecting the anode contributions, the mass activity at 850 mV for the printed CCM is nearly 76.5 mA/mgPt which is 3.5 times higher than that for the CCM fabricated by conventional spraying method (22.5 mA/mgPt).