Fuel cell with proton conducting membrane with a pore size less than 30 nm

A fuel cell comprising a housing, a solid electrolyte membrane having a first and a second surface, disposed in said housing to partition it into an anode side and a cathode side, an anode and a cathode each comprising a catalyst layer and a carbon backing layer and being formed on said first and second membrane surfaces respectively, so as to connect said first surface to the anode side and said second surface to the cathode side, said anode side comprising means for storing an oxidizable fuel or for circulating it past the anode and said cathode side comprising means for flowing oxygen or air past the cathode, wherein said solid electrolyte membrane is a proton conducting membrane having pores with a diameter size which is essentially smaller than 30 nm and comprising:

• (i) 5% to 60% by volume of an electrically nonconductive inorganic powder, said powder comprising essentially nanosize particles;
• (ii) 5% to 50% by volume of a polymeric binder that is chemically compatible with acid, oxygen and said fuel;
• and
• (iii) 10 to 90% by volume of an acid or aqueous acid solution.