Nanofiber Fuel Cell Electrodes I. Fabrication and Performance with Commercial Pt/C Catalysts

Nanofiber electrodes prepared with three different commercial Pt/C catalysts and 1100 EW Nafion (R) binder were fabricated by electrospinning. The electrodes were further processed into membrane-electrode-assemblies (MEAs) using Nafion 211 as the membrane material. MEAs were evaluated for catalyst activity and power output in a hydrogen/air fuel cell at 80 degrees C. Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo (TKK) TEC10E50E (46.1% Pt on Ketjen Black) was more electrochemically active and produced slightly more power than its heat-treated counterpart, TKK TEC10E50E-HT (50.5% Pt on Ketjen Black), and Johnson Matthey HiSpec 4000 catalyst (40% Pt on Vulcan carbon). The nanofiber cathodes were compared to MEAs with standard non-structured gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) containing the same catalysts, and in all cases, the electrospun fibers generated more power. For example, with a Pt loading of 0.10 mg/cm(2), the electrospun TKK TEC10E50E generated 470 mW/cm(2) at a 0.65 V vs. 349 mW/cm(2) for the GDE-based MEA, an improvement of 35%. The effect of nanofiber composition (the ratio of Pt/C to Nafion) and the effect of fiber diameter on power output were also investigated. In general, such changes had a little or no impact on performance and all the electrospun mats tested yielded MEAs that produced very high power.