Evaluating Electrocatalysts at Relevant Currents in a Half-Cell: The Impact of Pt Loading on Oxygen Reduction Reaction

In this work gas diffusion electrode (GDE) half-cells experiments are proposed as powerful tool in fuel cell catalyst layer evaluation as it is possible to transfer the advantages of fundamental methods like thin-film rotating disk electrode (TF-RDE) such as good comparability of results, dedicated elimination of undesired parameters etc. to relevant potential ranges for fuel cell applications without mass transport limitations. With the developed setup and electrochemical protocol, first experiments on different Pt/C loadings confirm excellent reproducibility. Thereby mass-specific current densities up to 30 A mgPt−1 at 0.6 V vs. RHE are achieved. From a methodological perspective, good comparability to single cell measurements is obtained after theoretical corrections for temperature and concentration effects. In comparison to previous studies with GDE half-cells, polarization curves without severe mass transport limitations are recorded in a broad potential window. All these achievements indicate that the proposed method can be an efficient tool to bridge the gap between TF-RDE and single cell experiments by providing fast and dedicated insights into the effects of catalyst layers on oxygen reduction reaction performance. This method will enable straightforward and efficient optimization of catalyst layer composition and structure, especially for novel catalysts, thereby contributing to the performance enhancements of fuel cells with reduced Pt loading.