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Research Article

Ultrathin nanoporous metal electrodes facilitate high proton conduction for low-Pt PEMFCs

Shuai Shi, Xianglong Wen, Qinqin Sang, Shuai Yin, Kaili Wang, Jian Zhang, Min Hu, Huiming Yin, Jia He( ), Yi Ding( )
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Porous Materials, Institute for New Energy Materials & Low-Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China
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Abstract

Design of catalyst layers (CLs) with high proton conductivity in membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) is an important issue for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Herein, an ultrathin catalyst layer was constructed based on Pt-decorated nanoporous gold (NPG-Pt) with sub-Debye-length thickness for proton transfer. In the absence of ionomer incorporation in the CLs, these integrated carbon-free electrodes can deliver maximum mass-specific power density of 198.21 and 25.91 kW·gPt-1 when serving individually as the anode and cathode, at a Pt loading of 5.6 and 22.0 μg·cm-2, respectively, comparable to the best reported nano-catalysts for PEMFCs. In-depth quantitative experimental measurements and finite-element analyses indicate that improved proton conduction plays a critical role in activation, ohmic and mass transfer polarizations.

Keywords

nanoporous metal electrodeproton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)ultrathin catalyst layerproton conductiondealloying

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Nano Research
Volume 14 Issue 8,
August 2021
Pages 2681-2688
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-3272-0
Cite this article:
Shi S, Wen X, Sang Q, et al. Ultrathin nanoporous metal electrodes facilitate high proton conduction for low-Pt PEMFCs. Nano Research, 2021, 14(8): 2681-2688. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3272-0
Topics:
ElectrodesEnergy storageNanocatalystsPlatinum metals

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Received: 14 September 2020
Revised: 05 November 2020
Accepted: 30 November 2020
Published: 29 December 2020
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
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