Fabrication of high precision PEFC membrane electrode assemblies by sieve printing method

Abstract

In this work, results of the preparation of Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEA) catalyst layer are shown to be faster and highly reproducible by using the sieve printing technique. The results were compared with those obtained by spray and hot pressing methods. The experiments were carried out in a 25 cm2 single fuel cell. SEM was used to investigate the electrodes morphology. The MEAs performance was measured by polarization curves. It was observed that the sieve printing method is significantly more accurate and faster than spray one. Such features allow manufacturing larger active areas, for stack fabrication. In addition, this deposition technique produces MEAs with 39,8 % higher power density in the operating voltage region.