Electrochemische Energieconversie, N.v.

Electrochemische Energieconversie N.v. (elenco N.v.)

Alain P Blanchart

Gustaaf J Spaepen

Constantine W De Brandt

Ludovicus C Adriaensen

Christian J Van Der Poorten

Gilbert J Van Bogaert

Present invention relates to a process for producing a catalytic layer for a fuel cell electrode, which process is characterized in that first step at least two carbons or mixtures of carbons are separately mixed with binder, subsequently in a second step these separate carbon/binder mixtures are intimately mixed together and after that in a third step the mixture obtained is formed into a catalytic layer of the desired dimensions.

Process for producing a catalytic layer for a fuel cell electrode

The invention relates to a porous electrode at least containing a porous catalytic layer, which layer at least contains 3-30 parts by weight of mouldable polymeric binder, 50-94 parts by weight of carbon particles and 3-47 parts by weight of hard hydrophobic polymer particles.

Porous electrode

The invention relates to a fuel cell electrode provided with a catalytic layer containing a noble metal on carbon with a relatively low specific surface and a carbon with a relatively high specific surface, of which electrode the catalytic layer contains noble metal on carbon with a specific surface lower than 100 m.sup.2 g.sup.-1 and carbon with a specific surface higher than 150 m.sup.2 g.sup.-1 on which there is at most an equally large percentage by weight of noble metal as on the carbon having a relatively low specific surface. The invention also relates to a process for preparing such a fuel cell electrode.

Fuel cell electrode

The invention relates to a porous electrode comprising at least a porous catalytic layer containing a catalytically active noble-metal, carbon and a polymeric binder and a porous metallic collector is situated on the electrolyte-side of this layer. According to the invention the catalytic layer has a thickness of less than 80 .mu.m and are the noble-metal particles in the layer situated on the surface and/or in the pores of part of the carbon particles, while the rest of the carbon particles contains no noble-metal particles. The invention meets the need of an electrode of the type described with a much lower noble-metal content, while the excellent characteristics as regards efficiency, power density and simplicity of manufacture are retained.

The invention relates to an electrochemical zinc-oxygen cell comprising an oxygen electrode containing a porous electrically conductive layer, a zinc electrode, a diffusion of zincate restricting membrane, preferably an ionexchanging membrane, which is joined directly to the oxygen electrode between the porous layer of this electrode and the zinc electrode, and an electrolyte space between the membrane and the zinc electrode containing a liquid basic electrolyte. By preference the membrane is only slightly permeable for the electrolyte. With this cell no poisoning of the electrochemically active material occurs.

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Balen, Belgium

Alain P Blanchart