Investigation of membrane-electrode assembly parameters for double-layer anion-exchange membrane-unitized regenerative fuel cell

Abstract

In this study, we investigate various membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) parameters in the oxygen and hydrogen electrodes for high-efficiency anion-exchange membrane-unitized regenerative fuel cell (AEM_URFC). The effects of catalyst loadings, types of porous transport layer (PTL), and oxygen and hydrogen catalysts were optimized to improve the efficiency of the AEM_URFC. The PTL results indicated that the PTL suitable for fuel cell (FC) exhibited high round-trip efficiency (RTE). Additionally, the types of hydrogen electrode (Pt/C and PtRu/C) were examined. Additionally, AEM_URFCs with different oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst types (Pt/C and Pt black), and ORR and oxygen evolution reaction catalyst loadings were evaluated. Through our investigations, we developed a high-efficiency AEM_URFC with an RTE of 65.9 % at 20 mA cm- 2 (0.871 and 1.572 V (FC and WE modes, respectively)). Moreover, the performance of this AEM_URFC is superior to that of other AEM_URFCs reported in the literature, which is attributed to the reduced ohmic resistance loss caused by the electrical conductivity and hydrophobicity of carbon PTL. Moreover, the AEM_URFC was durable for 5 cycles, indicating that it is cyclable under URFC operation.