A novel method for preparing proton exchange membrane fuel cell electrodes by the ultrasonic-spray technique

A novel ultrasonic-spray method for preparing gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is described. Platinum (Pt) loaded on Nafion^®-bonded GDEs were prepared by the ultrasonic-spray method on various commercial woven and non-woven gas diffusion layers (GDLs) at several Pt loadings in the range of 0.40-0.05 mg cm⁻². The ultrasonic-sprayed GDEs were tested and compared to commercial and hand-painted GDEs. It was found that the GDEs prepared by the ultrasonic-spray method exhibited better performances compared to those prepared by the hand-painting technique, especially at low Pt loadings. GDEs fabricated by the ultrasonic-spray method with a platinum loading of 0.05 mg cm⁻² exhibited a peak power rating of 10.9 W mg⁻¹ compared to 9.8 W mg⁻¹ for hand-painted GDEs. For all experiments using various GDLs, Sigracet SGL 10BC exhibited the best performance with a peak power of 0.695 W cm⁻².