NOVELTY - A fuel cell (10) comprises: first electrode (32); second electrode (36); ion conducting polymer membrane (40) positioned between first and second electrodes; and a first oxygen evolution reduction (OER) catalyst-containing ionic layer (50) positioned between first electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane, where the layer comprises OER catalyst, ion conducting polymer and carbon, in which weight ratio of ion conducting polymer to carbon is 10-100.    USE - As fuel cell (claimed), useful as electrical power source in e.g. automobiles.    ADVANTAGE - The fuel cell comprises first and second oxygen evolution reduction (OER) catalyst-containing ionic layers positioned between first electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane, and second electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane, and provides electrodes that are resistant to oxidation; as compared to the prior art fuel cells which have configurations that although work reasonably well, significant problems arise during global or local fuel starvation and during start/stop conditions, due to oxidation of electrode carbon support that results in damages to the electrode structure, decreased fuel cell performance, and decreased service lifetime of the cell. When the fuel cell is tested by subjecting to accelerated corrosion test to evaluate effectiveness of OER catalyst-containing ionic layer comprising a layer present as iridium oxide containing ionic layer on anode side, in mitigating carbon corrosion during cell reversal due to global fuel (H2) starvation in anode, voltage rises are seen as for reaction to support oxidation current flow from anode side; so that iridium in ionic layer is found to be as effective as in electrode layer in protecting anode carbon support from severe corrosion. Thus for a given carbon support, it is observed that the OER-containing catalyst layer i.e. iridium oxide containing ionic layer provides same level of electrode protection as when iridium oxide is embedded into first catalyst platinum-containing electrode.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - A fuel cell (10) comprises: first electrode (32); second electrode (36); ion conducting polymer membrane (40) positioned between first and second electrodes; and a first oxygen evolution reduction (OER) catalyst-containing ionic layer (50) positioned between first electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane, where the layer comprises OER catalyst, ion conducting polymer and carbon, in which weight ratio of ion conducting polymer to carbon is 10-100. The OER catalyst comprises an iridium-containing compound (preferably a compound of formula IrxOy) (where x is 0.8-1.2 (preferably 1), and y is 1.8-2.4 (preferably 2)); and/or a component selected from ruthenium oxides, ruthenium oxide-titanium oxide, and/or indium oxides. The fuel cell further comprises a second OER catalyst-containing layer (52) positioned between ion conducting polymer membrane and second electrode. The OER catalyst loading is 0.0005-0.005 mg/cm2. The weight ratio of ion conducting polymer to carbon is 55. The first electrode comprises a first catalyst and second electrode comprises a second catalyst. An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for forming the membrane electrode assembly comprising the first electrode, second electrode, ion conducting polymer membrane, and first DER-catalyst-containing layer, involving: contacting the first OER catalyst-containing layer to a substrate to form OER catalyst-containing layer/substrate bilayer; and incorporating the OER catalyst-containing layer/substrate bilayer into the membrane electrode assembly.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows schematic illustration of the fuel cell incorporating the OER catalyst-containing layer.    Fuel cell (10)    Bipolar plates (12, 14)    Anode flow field (18)    Channels for introducing first gas/hydrogen to fuel cell (20)    Cathode gas flow field (22)    Channels for introducing second gas/oxygen into fuel cell (24)    Anode diffusion layer (30)    Anode layer (32)    Cathode diffusion layer (34)    Cathode layer (36)    Ion conductive polymer membrane (40)    OER catalyst-containing layers (50, 52)