High‐Performance Nanostructured Membrane Electrode Assemblies for Fuel Cells Made by Layer‐By‐Layer Assembly of Carbon Nanocolloids

Abstract

Layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly is used to produce high-performance nanostructured membrane electrode assemblies for H2/O2 fuel cells (see figure) for which porosity, platinum loading, electronic conductivity, and proton conductivity can be finely tuned. Free-standing membranes are made from negatively charged Nafion-wrapped carbon fibers (CFs) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with Pt nanoparticles deposited by a selective heterogeneous nucleation reaction.