High-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) are made with three-layered membranes. The central membrane layer is meant as an acid reservoir made from direct cast PBI with a higher acid content than the outermost layers, which are post doped membranes acting as bather layers to limit the acid transport out of the central layer. Cells with three-layered membranes and others with normal single layered membranes are tested at 170 and 180 degrees C. At both temperatures, the cells with three-layered membranes show significantly lower voltage decay rates than the corresponding cells with single-layered membranes. Post doped PBI membranes based on linear or thermally crosslinked PBI are used for the barrier layers of the three-layered membranes and for the single-layered membranes in the test series at 180 degrees C. The acid loss rates assessed by acid collection at the fuel cell exhaust, are rather comparable. At 180 degrees C, the cells are tested for up to 10,000 h and voltage decay rates of 2.3 and 4.1 mu Vh(-1) are measured for the cells with three-layered membranes and 14 and 11 mu Vh(-1) for cells with single-layered membranes. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.