High Performance PEM Fuel Cell with Low Platinum Loading at the Cathode Using Magnetron Sputter Deposition

Abstract

Platinum cluster formations have been investigated as a way to reduce the amount of Pt at the cathode of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. One, two, and three layers of Pt (0.05 mg/cm 2 ) sputtered directly on microporous layers of gas diffusion layers with and without interfacial carbon-Nafion layers and carbon-polytetrafluoroethylene (CPTFE) layers have been used as a cathode. Comparison with experimental results had showed that the best performance was obtained with three layers of Pt sputtered on carbon-Nafion containing 34.8 wt.% of Nafion and sputtered carbon-polytetrafluoroethylene containing 16.9 wt.% of polytetrafluoroethylene. High limiting current densities (>1.1 A/cm 2 ) have been reached with cathode Pt loading as low as 0.05 mg/cm 2 . SEM imagery and cyclic voltammetry characterization have been performed to consolidate this study. High Pt utilization can be showed by this method. The factor influencing Pt utilisation in the oxygen reduction reaction is intrinsically related to Pt clusters formation and helps in enhancing the PEMFC performance with low Pt loading.

Key findings

• ▸Three layers of Pt sputtered on carbon-Nafion and CPTFE layers resulted in the best performance.
• ▸High limiting current densities (>1.1 A/cm²) were reached with cathode Pt loading as low as 0.05 mg/cm².
• ▸Pt clusters formation is the key factor influencing Pt utilization in the oxygen reduction reaction.

Keywords

Identifiers

DOI

10.1155/2013/174834

Journal

ISRN Electrochemistry

Year

2013