Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Materials

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), which is the closest to commercialization in all the five types of fuel cells, is one of the most promising power sources as the future electric vehicle engine and has rapid progress in the past two decades. To date, the biggest obstacles in the way of PEMFC's commercialization are cost and lifetime, which must be solved by searching and developing novel materials. These areas have already become the keystones and hotspots in PEMFC's research and development. In this paper, recent years' developments on the key materials of PEMFC are reviewed. Firstly, the development in proton exchange membrane is introduced including the directions of fluorinated membrane, non-fluorinated membrane, high temperature membrane, inorganic ceramic membrane and so on. Secondly, the recent progress in platinum based and non-platinum electrocatalyst used in PEMFC is introduced; thirdly, the research results of the characteristics and materials of the gas diffusion layer in PEMFC is introduced. In the last, bipolar plates materials and their machining methods of graphite, metal and composite materials for PEMFC are reviewed. The authors also comment the state-of-the-art development of each material, and provide outlook of the future develop directions of the PEMFC materials.