Direct deposition of proton exchange membranes enabling high performance hydrogen fuel cells
02.04.2015
Klingele M, Breitwieser M, Zengerle R, Thiele S
J Mater Chem A 2015;3,11239-11245
We apply drop-on-demand inkjet printing to fabricate proton exchange membranes for polymer electrolyte fuel cells. This completely substitutes the commonly used membrane foil. A Nafion® dispersion is deposited directly onto the catalyst layers of anode and cathode gas diffusion electrodes, and the two electrodes are pressed together with membrane layers facing each other. We achieve a cell power density exceeding 4 W/cm² with pure oxygen as cathode fuel, which, to our knowledge, is the highest reported power density with a Nafion® membrane hydrogen fuel cell.
