抄録
Although a popularization of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) is expected as clean energy, high manufacturing costs have hindered its widespread use, and reducing the amount of platinum catalyst is a top priority for further spread. Generally, although the catalyst layer (CL) of MEAs is manufactured by the doctor blade method, this method has problems such as a poor dispersion of Pt catalyst in the CL and a difficulty in controlling the film thickness. Therefore, our laboratory has proposed the application of inkjet coating printing to the manufacturing process of CL to solve these problems. Because the IJP method can form the optimum catalyst layer structure by dotting ink droplets of about 50μm using different catalyst inks with different ionomer to platinum catalyst ratios (I/C ratio), it can reduce the amount of Pt. If dots are drawn with different catalyst ink compositions on the same electrode surface and in the catalyst layer thickness direction, a three-dimensional catalyst layer structure can be formed. This paper examined the effect of two-dimensional catalyst layers with I/C ratio distribution within the same electrode on cell performance. As a result, it was found that the I/C ratio distribution contributes to the improvement of cell performance.
