Effects of short-side-chain perfluorosulfonic acid ionomers as binders on the performance of low Pt loading fuel cell cathodes

We investigated the effects of short-side-chain (SSC) perfluorosulfonic acid ionomers on the electrochemical properties, fuel cell performance and ionomer distribution of a highly dispersed Pt/GCB catalyst with a low Pt loading, 0.05 mg cm−2. The SSC ionomers in the cathode catalyst layers (CLs) resulted in an improvement of the Pt utilization (UPt) and Pt effectiveness (EfPt) values compared with those for the conventional long-side-chain (LSC) ionomer. Furthermore, the SSC ionomers with high ion exchange capacity (IEC), e.g., SSC-1.43 and SSC-1.80 ionomers, exhibited significantly enhanced cell performance under low to medium relative humidity (RH) conditions. This result is ascribed to the higher proton conductivity of the SSC ionomers and more effective trapping of water that is produced during the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) than those of the LSC ionomer. It was also found that the SSC ionomers showed better continuity and uniformity on the Pt and carbon particles than the LSC ionomer, which might have led to improvement of both the mass transport and the proton-conducting network in the CLs. The application of the SSC ionomers as binders demonstrated an increase of the performance at the low Pt loading fuel cell cathode over a wide range of humidity.