Hydrocarbon ionomers have not been successfully employed in the cathode of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC)s due to their low oxygen permeabilities. In this work, we propose a partially fluorinated aromatic polyether with sulfonic acid groups (s-PFPE) as an ionomer for the cathode catalyst layer. Compared to sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (s-PEEK), it exhibited more than 1.5 times higher oxygen permeability at RH 40% and 1.3 times higher at RH 100%. The catalyst layer based on s-PFPE showed higher power performance than that based on s-PEEK owing to enhanced oxygen transport and fast proton conduction through the s-PFPE ionomer phase covering the catalyst layer. We demonstrate that the introduction of the perfluorinated moieties to the hydrocarbon backbone is an effective strategy for the use of hydrocarbon ionomer in the cathode of PEMFCs. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.