FUELCELL2006-97192 SINGLE CELL PERFORMANCE OF CATALYST COATED MEMBRANE BASED ON SUPERTHIN PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE

Abstract

ABSTRACT The superthin PEM (≤ 30µm in thickness) can be used in CCMs(Catalyst coated membranes) and helpful to lower the cost of fuel cells. In this paper, the CCM based on Nafion NRE® 211 membrane (thickness ~25µm) was prepared and assembled into a single fuel cell. The activation time, the V-I curves and the voltage vs time plot were used to characterize the performance of CCMs under variuos hydrogen/air humidifying conditions at ambient pressure. The experimental results showed that the fuel cell with CCMs based on NRE® 211 membrane had a shorter activation time and higher performance under humidifying conditions compared to that based on nafion NRE® 212 membrane (thickness ~50µm). However, it's important to remove water from anode in order to maintain a stable performance of fuel cell. Moreover, the performance of the single fuel cell using superthin membranes could be improved at a high current density under non-humidifying conditions