A novel membrane electrode assembly for improving the efficiency of the unitized regenerative fuel cell

A novel membrane electrode assembly (MEA) for unitized regenerative fuel cell (URFC) has been developed. The MEA was fabricated to improve the efficiency of the URFC by a Nafion-pyrolyzed method. The polarization curves for fuel cell and water electrolysis modes of URFC operation both were investigated. The MEA improved water management and minimized mass transport limitations. The URFC using the novel MEA exhibited a high water electrolysis performance and a much higher fuel cell performance than that of the URFC using the conventional MEA. The efficiency of fuel cell and round-trip enhanced 13.5% and 10.8% at 700 mA/cm(2) with the novel MEA respectively. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.