New evaluation method for the effectiveness of platinum/carbon electrocatalysts under operating conditions

To facilitate the development of high performance polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) we have proposed a new evaluation method for the effectiveness of Pt (Ef(Pt)) under actual PEFC operating conditions We also have examined the dependence of the values of Ef(Pt) on experimental parameters including the ionomer content in the catalyst layer The Ef(Pt) parameter is defined as the ratio of mass activity (MA) in the membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) to the maximum mass activity (MA(max)) at high potential as estimated by use of the channel flow double electrode (CFDE) technique as an ideal case of complete ionic contact with the Pt surface For the ionomer content in the catalyst layer (Nafion/carbon ratio N/C) we found a distinct Increase of Ef(Pt) with increasing N/C indicating a beneficial effect of the ionic contact and connectivity of the ionic conduction path within the catalyst layer even though the apparent utilization of platinum (U(Pt)) was nearly constant Typical Ef(Pt) values for the mid-range of N/C ratios were found to only reach ca 12 5% for pure O(2) and T(cell) 65 degrees C Furthermore the Ef(Pt) values in air only reached ca 7 5% It must be emphasized that there is still much room for the improvement of Ef(Pt) (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved