Eliminating micro-porous layer from gas diffusion electrode for use in high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. In this work, we report a simple strategy to improve the performance of high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) by eliminating the micro-porous layer (MPL) from its gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs). Due to the absence of liquid water and the general use of high amount of catalyst, the MPL in a HT-PEMFC system works limitedly. Contrarily, the elimination of the MPL leads to an interlaced micropore/macropore composited structure in the catalyst layer (CL), which favors gas transport and catalyst utilization, resulting in a greatly improved single cell performance. At the normal working voltage (0.6 V), the current density of the GDE eliminated MPL reaches 0.29 A cm−2, and a maximum power density of 0.54 W cm−2 at 0.36 V is obtained, which are comparable to the best results yet reported for the HT-PEMFCs with similar Pt loading and operated using air. Furthermore, the MPL-free GDE maintains an excellent durability during a preliminary 1400 h HT-PEMFC operation, owing to its structure advantages, indicating the feasibility of this electrode for practical applications