Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), also known as proton exchange membrane fuel cell is differentiated due to electrolyte type; but basic principle of electric production is the same as other fuel cell types that using redox reactions for electric production without greenhouse gases emission. The input, fuel is based on hydrogen or hydrogen – based gases, and output of fuel cell is water products. It is clearly understood that power generation technique of fuel cell (redox reactions) is directly related to catalyst performance. Because catalyst materials determine the rate of the chemical reaction, therefore the amount of electricity produced depends on the rate of this reaction, i.e. depends on the effect of the catalyst. Conventional fuel cells use noble metals as a catalyst material. The prevalence of noble metals in environment is nominal and production of them is expensive, so noble metals greatly affect the limitations, usage areas, prime cost and cost of fuel cell technology. New generation materials with high Electrocatalyst performance can dramatically reduce the cost of fuel cells. Accordingly, developed new materials should be tested for fuel cell systems.

The electrodes are the basic components of the fuel cells, they are on   two opposite side and there are two different electrodes (anode and cathode).      The basics of reactions on electrodes are that breakdown of hydrogen occurs on anode electrode, the electrons resulting   from the oxidation is emitting through external circuit; while hydrogen ions are transferred to the cathode via the electrolyte. Reduction of oxygen and formation of water occurs on cathode side. Membrane electrode assembly is the part that includes opposing electrodes and the membrane between them, and catalyst materials are embedded on electrodes inside MEA unit. Theoretically, fuel cells can work without catalysts. But the reaction occurs very slowly and inefficient. The catalyst is responsible for accelerating the reactions by lowering the activation energy or splitting the steps of reactions. Especially, the oxygen reduction reaction is very slow and difficult to perform on its own. Catalytic behavior depends on catalyst surface area. Hence particle size, shape and morphology is important for active surface area. Nanoparticles have large active specific surface area to show catalytic behavior of material. Catalytic four electron reduction of oxygen to water is kinetically slower than hydrogen reduction reactions. Hence, the speed of reaction is decided by oxygen step. The over potential of half reaction is 500 – 600 mV with a platinum-based catalyst. Moreover, commercial fuel cells, a current density of about 1.5 A/cm2 of electrode material is normally desirable.

The initial valus are taken from characterization results and some assumptions were made for examining the catalytic effect.Stationary solver is used to investigate the catalytic behaviors of FeNiCu particles when flow rates reaches constant regime.

First graph shows the comparison of catalyst materials according to cell voltage and current density. Second image shows the electrolyte current density by cell voltage steps. Third and fourth images shows pressure at anode and cathode respectively.

The new generation catalyst materials such as Fe,Ni,Cu and Co can be used as a catalyst in order to noble materials i.e Pt, Pt/Ru. However there is a long road for experiment the result of new catalyst materials in PEMFC.