Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Convenient Miniature Test Platform For Polyelectrolyte Membrane Fuel-Cell Research, Jamie A. Shetzline, Saheed Bukola, Stephen E. Creager

Publications

A simple and convenient small-scale fuel-cell test platform was created from a commercial compression fitting and graphite rod current collectors and used to conduct diagnostic tests on disk-shaped membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) fabricated from Nafion membranes and Nafion-impregnated platinum-on-carbon-cloth anodes and cathodes. A key advantage of this test platform is that it requires very little material, perhaps just a few milligrams, to conduct a fuel-cell test on a supported catalyst. Electrochemically-active surface area (ECSA) values for supported platinum on carbon-cloth electrodes were obtained by in-situ(in the fuel cell) and ex-situ (in liquid electrolyte) cyclic voltammetry on similarly-prepared electrodes, and values …