A membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with a novel water management layer (WML) used in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was prepared. The so called WML, which was located between the carbon paper and the catalyst layer, was a sublayer composed of carbon and hydrophobic PTFE. Various parameters of the WML, including carbon loading, PTFE content and species, sintering time and temperature and pore formers, were investigated in this study. As demonstrated in our experimental results, the performance of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) PEMFC could be significantly improved by WML in the condition of operation with dry reactive gases. The MEA with the WML exhibited more stable performance than the situation of MEA without WML during a long time running period. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.