Jet Vapor Deposition of Ultra-low Loading Platinum and Ruthenium Oxide Catalysts on Polymer Electrolyte Membranes for Fuel Cell Application

聚合物电解质膜燃料电池（PEMFC）技术在电动汽车运输中具有广阔的应用前景。然而，最先进的PEMFC技术需要大量装载昂贵的贵金属催化剂，这使得它们对于汽车应用来说过于昂贵。高效、超低负荷的催化剂电极有望显著降低PEMFC的成本。Jet Process公司建议使用我们新颖的、专利的、屡获殊荣的、无污染的喷射气相沉积（JVD）工艺来解决这个问题。JVD能够快速、高效地沉积金属、金属氧化物薄膜和纳米颗粒。他们将超低负载的高表面积纳米级铂和铂/氧化钌电催化剂颗粒直接沉积在Nafion（杜邦）聚合物电解质膜的表面。研究人员将与美国领先的燃料电池技术供应商国际燃料电池公司合作，测试和评估第一阶段的样品，以确定这些超低负荷电极的催化活性。他们还将就工艺放大和生产经济学进行初步研究。

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) technology has great promise for electric vehicle transportation. State-of-the-art PEMFC technology, however, requires heavy loadings of expensive noble metal catalysts which make them too expensive for automotive application. Significant reduction of PEMFC cost could potentially be realized with high efficiency, ultra-low loading catalyst electrodes. Jet Process Corp. proposes to use our novel, patented, award-winning, pollution-free Jet Vapor Deposition (JVD) process to address this problem. JVD is capable of high rate, highly efficient deposition of metal and metal oxide films and nanoscopic particles. They will deposit ultra-low loadings of high surface area, nanometer-size platinum and platinum/ruthenium oxide electrocatalyst particles directly onto the surface of Nafion (DuPont) polymer electrolyte membranes. In collaboration with International Fuel Cells Inc., a leading U.S. supplier of fuel cell technology, the researchers will test and evaluate Phase I samples to determine the catalytic activity of these ultra-low loading electrodes. They will also develop preliminary studies on process scaleup and production economics.