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@INPROCEEDINGS{Bartoli:1051643,
author = {Bartoli, Francesco and salavei, andrei and Hilche, Tobias
and Kiran, Kiran and Fröhlich, Kristina and Treutlein,
Leander and Wolf, Niklas and Mehlkoph, Tobias and Karl,
André and Jodat, Eva and Eichel, Rüdiger-A.},
title = {{O}ptimization of {B}lade {C}oating {P}rocesses for the
{P}roduction of {L}arge {S}cale {PEMEC} {MEA}s with {L}ow
{I}ridium {L}oading},
reportid = {FZJ-2026-00555},
year = {2025},
abstract = {Current efforts in the development of Proton Exchange
Membrane Water Electrolysis (PEMWE) are driven by the
ongoing energy transition and the need to phase out fossil
fuels, to reduce dependence on other countries for energy
supply. However, since this technology strongly relies on
precious metals for their functioning, it is imperative to
reduce their content while ensuring good performances.
Stability overtime is also a major concern, since these
devices are expected to operate for hundreds of hours while
delivering the same amount of H2 throughout their life
cycle.In this work we present our recent results regarding
the preparation of Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEAs) made
with supported catalyst commercially available and their
performance on PEMWE1.Firstly, we prepared the ink
containing the catalyst powder (Pt/C for the cathode and
IrOx/TiOx for the anode), DI water, IPA and Nafion ionomer.
The mixtures were ultrasonicated and the resulting slurries
were used for the deposition process on Kapton HN substrates
by Doctor Blade technique2. This technique was chosen since
it is easily transferable to roll-to-roll compatible
slot-die coating, and hence for industrial application3.
Through decal transfer process, catalyst layers of 25 cm2
were transferred on Nafion 115 using a hot press machine4,
the MEA was named Ir75OxTiOx|N115|PtC. Pt and Ir loading of
cathode and anode were 0.22 and 0.35 mg/cm2 respectively.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the
MEAs´ morphology and cross section. In order to record
stable results under realistic conditions, the cell was
subjected to 50 hours of conditioning, in which the current
density was increased stepwise from 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and
finally 2.0 A/cm2. Then a polarization curve was recorded
(Fig. 1 left), here performance of Ir75OxTiOx|N115|PtC was
reported; the plot show how at 1.0 A/cm2 the cell voltage
was only 1.8 V, a very low value considering that the Ir
load was only 0.35 mg/cm2. Stability curve at 2.0 A/cm2 was
recorded after 50 h of conditioning (Fig. 1 right), showing
no sign of degradation, paving the way for future scale-up
further to 100 cm2 and beyond.},
month = {Sep},
date = {2025-09-07},
organization = {76th Annual ISE Meeting Mainz, Mainz
(Germany), 7 Sep 2025 - 12 Sep 2025},
subtyp = {After Call},
cin = {IET-1},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IET-1-20110218},
pnm = {1231 - Electrochemistry for Hydrogen (POF4-123) / HITEC -
Helmholtz Interdisciplinary Doctoral Training in Energy and
Climate Research (HITEC) (HITEC-20170406)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-1231 / G:(DE-Juel1)HITEC-20170406},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)24},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1051643},
}