Development of novel membrane-electrode-assembly structure for polymer electrolyte fuel cells

A novel membrane-electrode-assembly (MEA) structure for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFC) has been developed. The MEA is based on an unique self assembly of charged Pt nanopartilces onto the sulfonic acid function group, SO3-, at the Nafion membrane surface. The self assembly technology has specific advantages over the other more conventional deposition techniques such as electrodeposition and sputtering deposition as the self-assembly structure could be accurately controlled by the size of the Pt nanoparticles through the molecular weight of the ionic polymer stabilizer. Also, the self assembly techniques based on charged Pt nanoparticles does not need expensive equipment due to the chemical nature of the method. The self assembled MEA showed unique structure of monolayered Pt nanoparticles and such self assembled MEA showed potential to develop PEFC with reduced Pt loading and also has great potential in the fundamental study of the complex issues in PEFC without the complication associated with the gas diffusion and proton transportation in the multiple catalyst layer, gas diffusion layer and backing layer in conventional PEFC