The Key Materials and Components for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Vehicle fuel cells include proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), metal/air fuel cell, etc. The PEMFC is the most promising candidate for automobile application. Through over a decade continuous research and development all over the world, the performances of PEMFC, such as energy efficiency, volume and mass power density, low temperature start ability, have attained breakthrough progress. A new round of fuel cell automobile industrialization has been being approached. However, the properties of durability and cost of the PEMFC system have not met the target of industrialization, and the state of art of durability and cost become the obstacles of PEMFC automobiles industrialization. The novel key materials and components used in the PEMFC should be focused on in the future study, and must be further researched and developed for the two obstacles resolution and the PEMFC industrialization promotion. In this paper, based on a large number of current research articles, the progress and achievement of key materials and components for PEMFC, include proton exchange membrane, catalyst layer, gas diffusion layer, bipolar plate, have been detailed analyzed and classified reviewed. The gap between their state of art and the target of industrialization is analyzed and the emphasis development direction in the future is summarized based on the key materials and components.