Next-generation hydrogen fuel cells must raise power density and efficiency while simultaneously reducing platinum-group-metal loading, local thermal gradients, water flooding and durability losses. This study proposes an entropy-guided, functionally graded membrane-electrode assembly (EG-FGMEA) that couples four spatial design decisions: a reinforced thin perfluorosulfonic-acid membrane, a through-plane cathode ionomer gradient, graded catalyst accessibility, and a hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic microporous-layer transition. A steady-state, two-phase, non-isothermal model resolves charge transport, oxygen diffusion, membrane hydration, liquid saturation and heat generation. A deterministic Latin-hypercube design explores 180 candidate architectures and is filtered through a three-objective Pareto criterion comprising net power density, a voltage-decay proxy and normalized entropy generation. Relative to a conventional uniform catalyst layer, the selected architecture increases the modelpredicted peak net power density by 24.0% and raises voltage at 1.5 A cm-2 by 51 mV. Maximum cathode liquid saturation falls from 0.59 to 0.34, while the integrated irreversibility index decreases by 20%. Sensitivity analysis identifies effective oxygen diffusivity, area-specific resistance and ionomer-gradient amplitude as the dominant controllable variables. The analysis predicts a practical design window near 88-94 degC, 60-75% cathode relative humidity, 1.6-1.9 bar absolute pressure and 0.10-0.14 mgPt cm-2 total platinum loading. These results define testable design hypotheses rather than experimental proof and provide a transparent framework for subsequent catalyst-coated-membrane fabrication and validation.
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