Can Hydrocarbon-Based MEAs Close the Performance Gap to State-of-the-Art Perfluorosulfonic Acid-Based MEAs for PEM Fuel Cells?
We are pleased to share that researchers at the Technical University of Munich have demonstrated exceptional fuel cell performance using fully hydrocarbon membrane electrode assemblies incorporating Ionomr’s Pemion® ionomer and membrane.
Key findings include:
- >1.4 W/cm² (2.4 A/cm² @ 0.6V) under H₂/air at pressure under typical FC system maximum and moderate humidity, delivering performance comparable to state-of-the-art PFSA-based cells.
- Addressed a longstanding challenge of decal-transfer electrode processing for high-Tg hydrocarbon-based electrodes and membrane by introducing a wet hot-pressing / decal transfer method that consistently yielded high-performance hydrocarbon MEAs, with equal to enhanced catalyst surface areas and activities
These results underscore the transformative potential of Pemion® for next-generation, environmentally benign fuel cells with high efficiency, durability, and lower environmental impact.
We congratulate the TUM team on this outstanding milestone and look forward to continued collaboration in advancing clean energy technologies.
Abstract
Numerous hydrocarbon (HC)-based ionomers have been investigated as fluorine-free alternatives to the well-established perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA)-based ionomers for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. While PFSA-based MEAs can be prepared by hot-pressing, this is generally not possible for HC-based MEAs, due to their different physico-chemical properties. However, in this work, we introduce a wet hot-pressing method that yields high-performance HC-based MEAs, demonstrated by a systematic comparison of various MEA configurations with electrodes and/or the membrane based on either PFSA or HC ionomers. These MEAs exhibit oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities that are essentially identical for cathodes prepared with either HC or PFSA ionomers, contrary to the frequently observed inferior ORR activity for the former, ascribed to catalyst poisoning. Furthermore, the differential-flow H2/air performance at 80 °C, 170 kPaabs, and 2.5 A cm−2 of optimized all-HC-based MEAs coincides within ∼15 mV with that of all-PFSA-based MEAs, both at 70 and 90% relative humidity (RH). At these conditions, the current density of the all-HC-based MEAs at 0.6 V is ∼2.4 A cm−2 (90% RH) and ∼2.1 A cm−2 (70% RH), at anode/cathode loadings of ∼0.1/0.4 mgPt cm−2.
