Highly performed non-humidification membrane electrode assembly prepared with binary RuO2–SiO2 oxide supported Pt catalysts as anode

The use of non-humidification membrane electrode assembly (MEA) greatly reduces system cost and sophistication of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). An attempt to develop non-humidifying MEA without external gas humidification is made in this work using a home-made multi-functional Pt/RuO2–SiO2/C as the anode catalyst. Compared with MEA with Pt/SiO2/C or Pt/C anodes, the better wettability of MEA with Pt/RuO2–SiO2/C is confirmed by contact angle measurements. Single fuel cell tests with and without external gas humidification indicate that MEA with Pt/RuO2–SiO2/C (3 wt.% RuO2) displays the best performance. Under non-humidification operation conditions, the MEA with Pt/RuO2–SiO2/C discharges at 0.6 V for 48 h with only a slight current density decay.