Preparation of an Integrated Membrane Electrode Assembly for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Using a Novel Wet-Bonding Strategy

The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is an importantcomponentin proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), and its structuraldesign and preparation process are closely related to their performance.To further improve the performance of PEMFCs, an integrated MEA isprepared here by coating an ionomer solution on the surface of thegas diffusion electrode (GDE) substrate and then combining the wetmembrane coating with another GDE. The cathode GDE is more suitableas an ionomer coating substrate. On this basis, the dried ionomercoating forms the proton exchange membrane (PEM) and glues the cathodeand anode GDEs together to prepare an integrated MEA, thereby improvingthe production efficiency of MEA and eliminating the impact of thePEM/PEM interface in direct membrane deposition. This not only effectivelyreduces the internal resistance of the MEA but also forms water transportchannels in the catalyst layer. This structure improves the performanceof the MEA, especially under high current density and low humidityconditions. Under H-2/air operation, the cell performancereaches 1.26 W cm(-2), which is & SIM;1.2 and & SIM;1.1times that of the catalyst-coated membrane-type and direct membranedeposition-type MEAs, respectively. This work provides a novel andsimple method for the MEAs preparation.