Development of Membrane Electrode Assembly with Double-Catalytic Layer for Micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

Abstract

This paper presents a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with a double-catalytic layered structure to improve the performance of the micro direct methanol fuel cell. The inner and outer parts of the double-catalytic layer comprise an unsupported and carbon-supported catalyst, respectively. A two-dimensional two-phase model of mass transport and electrochemical reaction is established and simulated to analyze the superiority of the double-catalytic layered structure. Simulation results show that this structure has a more uniform current density distribution and less over-potential across the catalyst layer. Methanol crossover is also reduced. Experimental results confirm that the MEA with the double-catalytic layered structure exhibits better performance than the traditional MEA. The adoption of a gas diffusion electrode as the outer catalytic layer and a catalyst-coated membrane as the inner layer of the double-catalytic layered structure can further improve the performance of the MEA. Both simulation and experimental results show the existence of an optimum number of metal loadings of the inner and outer parts of the double-catalytic layer.