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Carbon paper-free membrane electrode assembly fabricated from a Pt electrocatalyst supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes

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Abstract

We described a new concept, carbon paper-free membrane electrode assembly (MEA) fabricated from Nafion membrane and multi-walled carbon nanotubes-based electrocatalyst, in which platinum nanoparticles were deposited on carbon nanotubes after coating with pyridine–polybenzimidazole (PyPBI). Polymer-coated carbon nanotubes served as platinum nanoparticles support and current collector in carbon paper-free MEA. The fabricated carbon paper-free MEA was systematically studied by in situ cyclic voltammetry, SEM and fuel cell test. Pt utilization efficiency of carbon paper-free MEA improved with decreasing in Pt loading and reached 62% with 0.1 mgPt cm−2. Meanwhile, the mass power density reached 1.1 W mg −1Pt , which was comparable to that of MEA with carbon paper. Fuel cell performance maintained 50% after 100000 startup–shutdown cycles, suggesting that carbon paper-free MEA was applicable in real fuel cell operation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of carbon paper-free MEA in polymer electrolyte fuel cells.

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Acknowledgements

The project was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (CUG170615).

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Author notes

  1. Fang Luo and Ying Ling have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, 28 Nanli RD, Wuhan, 430068, China

    Fang Luo & Qingting Liu

  2. Sustainable Energy Laboratory, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences Wuhan, 388 Lumo RD, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Ying Ling, Quan Zhang, Xinxin Yu & Zehui Yang

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  1. Fang Luo
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  2. Ying Ling
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  3. Quan Zhang
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  6. Zehui Yang
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Correspondence to Zehui Yang.

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Luo, F., Ling, Y., Zhang, Q. et al. Carbon paper-free membrane electrode assembly fabricated from a Pt electrocatalyst supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes. J Mater Sci 52, 8412–8420 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1081-y

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