Novel Dendritic Structure for Both Durable and High Performance of PEMFC Using Electrospray Deposition

Abstract

The degradation of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) induced by various physical and chemical causes is one of the critical obstacles for the commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Among them, the free radical attack is the main reason for conductivity decrease, membrane thinning and pinholes. Thus, it is crucial to develop a durable electrolyte membrane that can resist free radical attacks while retaining high performance. In this work, we introduce a novel multifunctional dendritic structure composed of a perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer and CeO2 nanoparticles using a simple electrospray deposition (ESD) method. The dendritic structure on the cathode side of the membrane enhanced the power performance of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) about 15% owing to the effective utilization of the active sites and enhanced mass transport by voids between the electrode and gas diffusion layer. Moreover, the CeO2 nanoparticle incorporated structures effectively protected PEM from the free radical attacks. The chemical durability of MEA was investigated using Fenton’s test and OCV hold test and the electro-sprayed membrane showed a lower OCV drop rate (0.5mV/h), compared to that of the reference (1.2mV/h).