International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol.37, No.17, 13103-13109, 2012
Highly performed non-humidification membrane electrode assembly prepared with binary RuO2-SiO2 oxide supported Pt catalysts as anode
The use of non-humidification membrane electrode assembly (MEA) greatly reduces system cost and sophistication of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). An attempt to develop non-humidifying MEA without external gas humidification is made in this work using a home-made multi-functional Pt/RuO2-SiO2/C as the anode catalyst. Compared with MEA with Pt/SiO2/C or Pt/C anodes, the better wettability of MEA with Pt/ RuO2-SiO2/C is confirmed by contact angle measurements. Single fuel cell tests with and without external gas humidification indicate that MEA with Pt/RuO2-SiO2/C (3 wt.% RuO2) displays the best performance. Under non-humidification operation conditions, the MEA with Pt/RuO2-SiO2/C discharges at 0.6 V for 48 h with only a slight current density decay. Copyright (c) 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Non-humidification;Membrane electrode assembly;Anode catalyst;Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells