The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 10, 2015
Filed:
Oct. 28, 2009
Friedrich B. Prinz, Woodside, CA (US);
Turgut M. Gür, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Friedrich B. Prinz, Woodside, CA (US);
Turgut M. Gür, Palo Alto, CA (US);
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
The current invention provides a fabrication method for large surface area, pinhole-free, ultra thin ion conducting membranes using atomic layer deposition on inexpensive sacrificial substrates to make cost effective, high performance fuel cells or electrolyzers. The resultant membrane electrode assembly (MEA) enables significant reduction in resistive losses as well as lowering of the operating temperature of the fuel cell. The invention further provides a method to deposit 3-dimensional surface conformal films that may have compositional grading for superior performance. In addition, the invention provides decoration and modification of electrode surfaces for enhanced catalytic activity and reduced polarization losses. The method of the current invention enables the MEA structure to be fabricated from the anode side up or the cathode side up, each with or without an incorporated anode current collector or cathode current collector, respectively.