Effect of Nafion content and hydration level on the electrochemical area of a Pt nanocatalyst in the triple-phase boundary.

Despite the great scientific effort, there are still some aspects of a polymeric membrane-based fuel cell (PEMFC) operation that are difficult to access experimentally. This is the case of the so-called triple-phase boundary (TPB), where the ionomer (commonly Nafion) interacts with the supported nanocatalyst (commonly Pt) and is key to the catalytic activity of the system. In this work, we use molecular dynamics simulations and electrochemical experiments on a Nafion/Pt/C system.