Cross-section observation of a fuel cell Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA)

The Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) is a main part of the fuel cell: its bonding condition of each layer and the aggregation state of articles influence the power generation performance. Structural observation of the MEA cross section is important. Fig.1 shows a cross section milling result of the electrolyte (polymer membrane) specimen while cooling at -100°C to reduce heat damage by ion beam irradiation. Whole image of the MEA cross section (Fig.1(a)) shows that the layers are contacted without delamination. In the highly magnified image of the anode (Fig.1(b)), nanometer size Pt particles, carbon particles and voids among them are observed with high contrast. The cathode layer is nanocapsule catalyst with combined Pt-Fe nanoparticles, and the cross section of it (Fig.1(C)) reveals that the catalyst capsules are closely packed in hollow space. Thus the ion milling method, which can process without stress, enables to produce cross section samples with reduced thermal damage by cooling function, and it is effective from understanding whole structure of the MEA to analyzing nanostructure of a catalyst particle.

Figure 1. Cross section SEM images of a fuel cell MEA after cryogenic ion milling. (A) whole image of the MEA (B) the anode layer (C) the cathode layer

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