Performance of a High Temperature Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell with Low Catalyst Loading Produced by Reactive Spray Deposition Technology

Abstract

In this study, catalyst layers with varying ratios of binder to carbon support material (I/C) for use in a high temperature phosphoric acid fuel cell were examined. The catalyst layers were deposited onto gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) using Reactive Spray deposition technology (RSDT). RSDT is a flame based process which produces nanoscale particles of platinum through the combustion of a precursor solution containing metal organic compounds. The resulting GDEs were used to construct a 5x5 cm single cell utilizing an 85wt% phosphoric acid doped Advent membrane. Polarization scans were measured in the presence of oxygen for varying ratios of binder to carbon support material. Numerical tools have been developed based on the thin film modeling approach for catalyst layer performance and links between important physical parameters of the model and the observed performance behavior are discussed.