The combination of small particle size, deposition structure and platinum repartition leads to high electrode efficiency for both the hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction reactions, says the company. MHS Energies believes that its PEMFC power density of 400 mW/cm², corresponding to a specific power of 20 kW per gram of platinum, is the highest yet reported in the scientific literature for such low platinum loadings for the anode and cathode.

Platinum loadings of 0.16 and 0.01 mg/cm² were realized. A PEMFC test with symmetric electrodes loaded with 10 μg/cm² led to maximum reproducible power densities as high as 0.4 W/cm² and 0.25 W/cm² with Nafion^® 212 and Nafion^® 115 membranes, respectively. MHS says that, when added to this performance improvement, the technology also offers several cost and manufacturing advantages, and is easily transferable to industrial-scale processes.

MHS Energies is a new unit of MHS Equipment SAS, whose expertise lies in ultrahigh-vacuum thin-layer deposition systems. MHS Energies aims to develop an innovative, environmentally friendly concept for high-performance PEMFC MEA manufacturing. The first products will be branded as TP²L2, indicating a total platinum loading of 20 μg/cm².