The influence of membrane electrode assembly's pressing on PEM fuel cell's performance

The performance of a fuel cell depends on multiple factors, one of the most important being the preparation of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). In the present work, MEAs constituted by gas diffuser electrodes (GDE) were pressed with carbon supported platinum catalysts. As solid electrolyte, a commercial polymeric membrane from Nafion was used, which was pressed at two GDE with loads of 5 and 1.5 mg/cm(2) of catalyst at different temperatures and pressures for a fixed period of time. The assembly was characterized electrochemically using linear sweep voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy at three different potentials. Also, the behavior when reversing the supply of hydrogen and oxygen to the GDE was studied. The results of the study showed a great dependence of the charge transfer resistance with the temperature, being secondary the dependence with the pressure in the range of temperature and pressure analyzed. Likewise, changes were observed in the open circuit potential after varying the temperature, pressure and catalyst load, hence affecting its maximum power and efficiency at that point.