Array membrane electrode assemblies for high throughput screening of direct methanol fuel cell anode catalysts

A fuel cell using an array membrane electrode assembly has been developed for the high throughput screening of fuel cell electrocatalysts. Standard membrane and electrode assembly methods are used. The use of modified fuel cell hardware permits the use of realistic catalyst exposure histories and steady state reaction conditions. The array fuel cell requires no supplemental electrolytes. The performance of the array fuel cell is demonstrated by the testing of one prepared in-house and three commercially available fuel cell catalysts. Within the potential range of a DMFC anode (i.e. 0.3–0.4 V), the catalyst rankings were PtRu (Johnson Matthey)>PtRu oxide (E-Tek)>PtRu (reduced by NaBH4)>Pt.