An electrode for electrochemical cells comprising an electrically conductive surface; an electrically conductive porous membrane having a first surface and an opposed outer second surface separated from the first surface by a thickness dimension defined by the length of a vector normal to the first surface and extending to where the vector intersects the second surface of an uncompressed portion of membrane, the membrane first surface is adjacent the electrically conductive surface and not more than 10% of the membrane second surface includes an area comprising at least one of; being compressed with sufficient sustained force toward and embedded into the electrically conductive surface so that electrical resistance between a location within a compressed outer second surface and the conducting surface is less than 10 micro-ohm and wherein no point within an uncompressed area is further from a nearest compressed area than three times the defined thickness dimension of the membrane.