Conventional catalyst layer with a smooth surface exists the larger area of“catalytic dead zone” and reduces the utilization of catalyst. Based on this, a novel catalyst layer structure based surface-patterned Nafion^® membrane was designed to achieve more efficient electrochemical reaction in this work. Surface-patterned Nafion^® membranes were prepared by hot pressing with different pressures, and their swelling degrees reduced obviously with the increase of pressure, but proton conductivities of the membranes were almost unchanged. Pre-swelling and direct-spraying deposition methods were used to prepare the novel catalyst layer, and the effect of pressure on the performance of MEA was investigated. The results suggested that the peak power density of DMFC with optimal novel catalyst layer structure increased by 28.84%, the charge transfer resistances of anode and cathode reduced by 28.8% and 26.5% respectively, compared with the conventional catalyst layer. Performance improvement is attributed to the fact that the novel catalyst layer structure optimizes the electrolyte membrane/catalyst layer and gas diffusion layer/catalyst layer interfacial structure, which increases the electrochemical reaction region and reaction sites. The novel catalyst layer with a three-dimensional curved surface structure enlarges the “three-phase boundaries (TPB)” and electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) of membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Therefore, this work provides an effective solution to achieve the high performance of DMFC by optimizing the internal interface structure of electrode, which is helpful to the future development of DMFC.

具有光滑表面的常规催化剂层存在较大的“催化死区”面积，并降低了催化剂的利用率。基于此，一种新型的催化剂层结构的基于表面图案化的Nafion ^®膜被设计为实现在这项工作中更有效的电化学反应。表面图案的Nafion ^®通过在不同压力下热压制备膜，其溶胀度随压力的增加而明显降低，但膜的质子电导率几乎不变。采用预溶胀和直接喷射沉积方法制备了新型催化剂层，并研究了压力对MEA性能的影响。结果表明，与常规催化剂层相比，具有新型新型催化剂层结构的DMFC的峰值功率密度提高了28.84％，阳极和阴极的电荷转移电阻分别降低了28.8％和26.5％。性能的提高归因于以下事实：新型催化剂层结构优化了电解质膜/催化剂层和气体扩散层/催化剂层的界面结构，这增加了电化学反应区域和反应位点。具有三维曲面结构的新型催化剂层扩大了膜电极组件（MEA）的“三相边界（TPB）”和电化学活性表面积（ECSA）。因此，这项工作通过优化电极的内部界面结构，为实现DMFC的高性能提供了有效的解决方案，有助于DMFC的未来发展。