Control of self-organization of drop-casted Nafion film for improving proton conduction in a polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cell to raise its output power density

Ching Hsien Lin, Hao Hsuan Chen, Kai Yu Zhan, Szu yuan Chen, Chung Jen Tseng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A simple drop-cast method to directly deposit Nafion polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) on nanostructured thin-film catalyst layer composed of stacked Pt nanoparticles prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) was demonstrated. Through optimization of solvent composition and drying temperature of Nafion solution to control self-organization of Nafion, a uniform PEM with better bulk and interface microstructures could be produced, leading to a significant improvement in the output current density of a PEM fuel cell over that using reference commercial PEMs. The formation of facile proton conduction pathways in the bulk Nafion membrane resulted in a 35% reduction in ohmic resistance compared to that with the commercial membrane. Moreover, the infiltration of Nafion in the catalyst layer formed suitable proton transport network to render more catalyst nanoparticles effective and thus lower charge-transfer resistance. With the optimized PLD, drop-cast, and hot-pressing conditions, the current density of PEMFCs using drop-casted PEM reached 1902 mA cm−2 at 0.6 V at 2 atm H2 and O2 pressures with a cathode Pt loading of 100 μg cm−2, corresponding to a power density of 1.14 W cm−2 and a cathode mass-specific power density of 11.4 kW g−1.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)26609-26618
Number of pages10
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume48
Issue number68
DOIs
StatePublished - 8 Aug 2023

Keywords

  • Drop-cast
  • Polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cell
  • Pulsed laser deposition
  • Self-organization

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