Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) face numerous challenges, involving the membrane nature and the active material for the cathodic reaction. A way to achieve more efficient PEMFCs is to increase their operating temperature above 373 K: High-Temperature PEMFCs (HT-PEMFCs). In this communication, we introduce for the first time the use of platinum group metal-free electrocatalysts (PGM-free) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in HT-PEMFC, namely an iron‑nitrogen‑carbon (Fe-N-C) electrocatalyst synthesized by the sacrificial support method and discuss their performances. A cell voltage of 0.43 V was observed at 0.2 A cm_geo⁻², this activity being greatly improved by increasing the back-pressure of the PEMFC (from 0.0 to 3.0 × 10⁵ Pa), reaching a polarization of 0.65 V at 0.2 A cm_geo⁻² (at 433 K, O₂ at the cathode), thus proving that the main limitations of the HT-PEMFC with a Fe-N-C cathode were not induced by the intrinsic activity of the electrocatalyst, but by the transport of the oxygen throughout the electrocatalyst structure.

聚合物电解质膜燃料电池（PEMFC）面临众多挑战，涉及膜的性质和用于阴极反应的活性材料。实现更高效率的PEMFC的一种方法是将其工作温度提高到373 K以上：高温PEMFC（HT-PEMFC）。在本交流中，我们首次介绍了在HT-PEMFC中使用无铂族金属的无电催化剂（无PGM）进行氧还原反应（ORR），即合成的铁-氮-碳（Fe-NC）电催化剂通过牺牲支持方法并讨论其性能。在0.2 A cm _geo ^-2处观察到0.43 V的电池电压，通过增加PEMFC的背压（从0.0到3.0×10 ⁵ Pa），在0.2 A cm _geo ^-2（在433 K，O ₂在阴极处）时达到0.65 V的极化，因此证明具有Fe-NC阴极的HT-PEMFC的主要局限性不是由电催化剂的固有活性，但通过整个电催化剂结构中的氧气传输。