Ultra-low Mass Sputtered and Conventional Catalyst Layers on Plasma-etched Nafion for PEMFC Applications

This paper presents performance results for the use of plasma-etched Nafion membranes to suppress polarization losses in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) configured from 0.1mg cm(-2) conventional Pt/C dispersion and 0.02 mg cm(-2) ultra-thin sputter-deposited Pt catalyst layers. Four MEA configurations, namely, etched membrane-conventional electrode, pristine membrane-conventional electrode, etched membrane-sputter electrode, and pristine membrane-sputter electrode cells were explored, and their respective maximum power densities were approximate to 514.6, 417.9, 170.1 and 138.3 mW cm(-2). The results demonstrated that independent of MEA fabrication approach, cells with O-2 plasma treated membranes had reduced ohmic resistances and delivered superior performance over their pristine counterparts, validating the utility of membrane etching for achieving improved PEMFC performance.