Fabrication and Optimization of Membrane Electrode Assembly with Support-Less Platinum Catalysts for Space Applications

Hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell technology is a critical component for NASA’s exploration mission. Maximizing specific energy of the fuel cell system (including fuel and oxidant storage) is typically the overarching goal [1]. This leads to a set of design requirements that are quite different than those for automotive fuel cells. NASA’s performance target for membrane electrode assembly is 200 mA/cm at 0.92 V under H2-O2 and 300KPa [2,3], and the durability target for space fuel cell system is 10,000+ hrs under the realistic mission profile [2,3].