Preparation of porous gas diffusion electrodes with platinum catalysts for hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell

SILVINA GABRIELA RAMOS; GUSTAVO ALFREDO ANDREASEN; ALICIA ESTHER ARES; WALTER ENRIQUE TRIACA

REVISTA MATéRIA

UNIV FED RIO DE JANEIRO

Lugar: Rio de Janeiro; Año: 2022

1517-7076

A preparation method for porous gas diffusion electrodes with platinum nanoparticles supported on Vulcan XC-72 carbon is presented. A fabrication procedure to manufacture a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), including the gas diffusion layer and the active layer, to be used in hydrogen/oxygen proton exchange fuel cell are described. The design and construction of a single prototype of hydrogen/oxygen PEM fuel cell, which incorporates the assembly MEA developed in-house, are presented. The performance of this proto-type is evaluated by measuring both polarization curves and power density. The experimental curves show the typical profiles of the fuel cell where different regions of energy losses, associated with limiting phenom-ena such as activation, ohmic, and concentration-controlled regions, are distinguished. The experimental power density curve, presents a maximum power output of approximately 0.12 W cm-2 at a current of about 0.31 A cm-2. Preliminary results allow us to conclude that the preparation method for porous gas diffusion electrodes catalyzed with platinum nanoparticles as well as the development of MEA, are suitable to achieve an efficient performance of the prototype of hydrogen/oxygen PEM fuel cell.