A novel method for preparing proton exchange membrane fuel cell electrodes by the ultrasonic-spray technique

Abstract A novel ultrasonic-spray method for preparing gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is described. Platinum (Pt) loaded on Nafion ® -bonded GDEs were prepared by the ultrasonic-spray method on various commercial woven and non-woven gas diffusion layers (GDLs) at several Pt loadings in the range of 0.40–0.05 mg cm −2 . The ultrasonic-sprayed GDEs were tested and compared to commercial and hand -painted GDEs. It was found that the GDEs prepared by the ultrasonic-spray method exhibited better performances compared to those prepared by the hand -painting technique, especially at low Pt loadings. GDEs fabricated by the ultrasonic-spray method with a platinum loading of 0.05 mg cm −2 exhibited a peak power rating of 10.9 W mg −1 compared to 9.8 W mg −1 for hand -painted GDEs. For all experiments using various GDLs, Sigracet SGL 10BC exhibited the best performance with a peak power of 0.695 W cm −2 .