An improved fabrication technique for conventional hot-pressed membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) with carbon supported cobalt triethylenetetramine (CoTETA/C) as the cathode catalyst is investigated The V-I results of PEM single cell tests show that addition of glycol to the cathode catalyst ink leads to significantly higher electrochemical performance and power density than the single cell prepared by the traditional method SEM analysis shows that the MEAs prepared by the conventional hot-pressed method have cracks between the cathode catalyst layer and Nafion membrane and the contact problem between cathode catalyst layer and Nafion membrane is greatly suppressed by addition of glycol to the cathode catalyst ink Current density-voltage curve and impedance turtles illuminate that the MEAs prepared by adding glycol to the cathode catalyst ink have a higher electrochemical surface area lower cell ohmic resistance and lower charge transfer resistance The effects of CoTETA/C loading Nation content and Pt loading are also studied By optimizing the preparation parameters of the MEA the as-fabricated cell with a Pt loading of 0 15 mg cm(-2) delivers a maximum power density of 181 1 mW cm(-2) and a power density of 126 2 mWcm(-2) at a voltage of 0 4V (c) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved