Application of Electrospinning Technique in the Fabrication of Catalyst Layer of Membrane Electrode Assemblies

摘要

Inspired by the original work published by Pintauro's group, the authors investigated the application of an electrospinning (E-spin) method for the fabrication of the catalyst layer of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell electrode. Electrochemical performance of the membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) produced by E-spin was characterized, and compared with an MEA produced with an ultrasonic spraying technique. A simple polarization curve analysis was conducted to help resolve the sources of over-potential. The platinum loading, and electrode morphology were characterized by X-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy. The electrospinning technique was found to yield a high performance electrode with low platinum loading, as well as high electrochemical area and platinum utilization.