TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - TEXTILES AND PAPER - Preferred Non-woven Fibrous Web: The continuous strands of carbon fiber embedded within web are at equal and/or varying depths. The continuous strands of carbon fiber have polymer coating or strands impregnated within the polymer. Each continuous strands of carbon fiber comprise at least 100 fibers. The carbon fibers have diameter of 0.2-25 microns. The fibers (A) are chosen from long fibers having average length of greater than 3 mm and short fibers having average length of less than 3 mm. Particularly, the fibers (A) are chosen from carbon, carbon wool, glass, silica, quartz, polymer, metal and/or ceramic fibers. The base filler material comprises particulate carbon and polymer, and further a catalyst other than electrocatalyst.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Electrocatalyst Material: The electrocatalyst material of gas diffusion electrode comprises one or more electrocatalytic components and a polymer. One or more electrocatalytic components is a precious metal or a transition metal or its oxide, either unsupported or supported in a dispersed form on a carbon support, and/or an organic complex in the form of high surface area finely divided powder or fiber. EXAMPLE - A non-woven sheet was produced using 0.5 g of 6mm chopped carbon fibers, 0.5 g of 12 mm chopped carbon fibers along with 0.5 g of carbon fiber wool (FRC 15) and 0.13 g of polyvinyl alcohol fibers. The obtained sheet was dried at 100degreesC in air. The dry sheet was replaced on a base mesh of hand sheet former and series of straight lengths of carbon tow. The sheet former was then refilled with water. Further dispersion of 0.5 g of 6 mm chopped carbon fiber, 0.5 g of 12 mm chopped carbon fibers, 0.5 g of FRC 15 carbon fiber wool and 0.13 g of polyvinyl alcohol fibers, was dispersed in 3 liters of water. The dispersion was placed in the sheet maker and deposited onto the first non-woven sheet and carbon tow. The final sheet was dried at 100degreesC in air. A substrate was prepared using the non-woven carbon fibrous sheet comprising strands of carbon fiber tow. The non-woven fibrous sheet was fabricated on a wet-laid papermaking machine at a grammage of 16 g/m2. The obtained non-woven fibrous web had thickness of 0.443 mm at 5 KPa and compressive strain of 55.7% at 509 KPa.