MEA Production Processes

The basic processes for electrode production are mixing, dispersing, coating, and drying. Each of these process steps influences the structure of the electrode which affects the efficiency.

In case gas diffusion layers (GDLs) are deployed as substrates, the coated GDLs (gas diffusion electrodes – GDEs) are assembled with a membrane by hot pressing (GDE technique).

The CCM technique (catalyst coated membrane) uses transfer foils as substrate. Hereby the MEA is prepared by removing the foil after the hot pressing and assembling the GDLs.

To optimize the electrode structure, the impact of material and process parameters on this structure during the manufacturing needs to be analyzed. Furthermore, to ensure the process scalability, on-going reconciliation between laboratory development and roll-to-roll pilot plant production is necessary.