The Effectiveness of using a Non-Platinum Catalyst for a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC)

The effectiveness of using a non-platinum material combination for a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell was studied. Three MEAs were characterized, two with a platinum catalyst loading of 0.1 mg/cm2 and 0.3 mg/cm2 and one with catalyst loading of 2 mg/cm2 of silver (Ag) particles on the anode side and a combination of 1.5 mg/cm2 Ag, 1.5mg/cm2 ruthenium and iridium oxide on the cathode side which was purchased from FuelCelletc in the USA. Hydrogen and oxygen was applied on either side of the non-platinum MEA to provide an additional test sample (MEA 4). The active area of the cell was 9 cm2. The performance of the Pt loaded PEMFC was characterized first to ensure the reliability of experimental setup and testing procedure. The tests were run at 0.5 bar at a temperature of 25 °C and 35 °C. Hydrogen and oxygen volume flow rates were varied between 19 ? 95 ml/min. The best open circuit voltage achieved for MEA 3 and 4 was 0.486 V and 0.34 V respectively. A maximum current density of 15x10-6 and 50x10-6 A/cm2 was achieved. The maximum power density found was 2.3x10-6 and 1.99x10-6 W/cm2. The identification of the particles size and dispersion was performed by scanning electron microscope.