Toray Industries, Inc.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ford Motor Company Limited

Daimler Ag

Japan Vilene Company, Ltd.

Daisuke Izuhara

Hiroaki Umeda

Tomoyuki Kunita

Masataka Nakamura

Shinya Adachi

Yuriko Okada

Kiyoshi Minoura

Naoki Shimoyama

Daisuke Ogata

Ryuta Sakashita

Yuta Shintaku

Kenta Minamibayashi

Hiroshi Taiko

Emi Amano

Masayuki Kidai

Takao Uete

Mei Abe

Mei Kumagai

Yumiko Okamoto

Junpei Yamaguchi

Yuka Fujieda

Shusuke Shirai

Timothy Manning Swager

Gang Wu

Yunsong Yang

Jing Li

Keping Wang

Takashi Tarao

Yoshitsugu Funatsu

Nobuaki Ito

Masaru Hashimoto

Qiao Chen

Shunji Kono

Tatsunori Ito

Noriko Michihata

Yoko Sakiyama

Tomohiro Sakaue

Fangke Shao

Yuka Yachi

Yuuta Wakamoto

The present invention provides a method of operating a fuel cell, which method enables a polymer electrolyte membrane to be humidified sufficiently under high-temperature conditions, and can obtain excellent power generation performance. The present invention is a method of operating a fuel cell including a membrane electrode assembly containing an electrolyte membrane, catalyst layers, and gas diffusion layers, the method including a step of setting the operating temperature of the fuel cell at 100° C. or more, wherein, in the step, the relative humidity of supply gas to be supplied to the fuel cell is 70% or more, and the back pressure of the supply gas is 330 kPa or more.

Method for operating fuel cell

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a composite electrolyte membrane which has excellent chemical resistance and can maintain sufficient mechanical strength even under conditions of high humidity and high pressure, which are the operating conditions for electrochemical hydrogen pumps and water electrolyzers. This composite electrolyte membrane, which is for achieving said purpose, has a composite layer obtained by combining a polyelectrolyte with a mesh woven material that satisfies (1) and (2) and comprises liquid crystal polyester fibers or polyphenylene sulfide fibers. (1): Mesh thickness (μm)/fiber diameter (μm)<2.0. (2): Opening (μm)/fiber diameter (μm)>1.0.

Composite electrolyte membrane

A composite electrolyte membrane having a composite layer that is a composite of a hydrocarbon polymer electrolyte and a fluorine-containing polymer porous substrate, wherein a fractal dimension D exhibiting the distribution of the hydrocarbon polymer electrolyte and the fluorine-containing polymer porous substrate in the composite layer is 1.7 or more. An object of the present invention is to enable a composite electrolyte membrane composed of a hydrocarbon polymer electrolyte and a fluorine-containing polymer porous substrate to achieve high proton conduction ability and high mechanical durability.

Composite electrolyte membrane, electrolyte membrane having catalyst layer attached thereto, membrane-electrode composite, solid polymer-type fuel cell, and method for producing composite electrolyte membrane

A composite polymer electrolyte membrane including a polymer electrolyte and a porous substrate, and having a dry tensile modulus of 100 N/cm or more per width and a wet tensile modulus of 35 N/cm or more per width. Enhancing the mechanical characteristics of the electrolyte membrane results in providing an electrolyte membrane that achieves good dry-wet cycle durability.

Composite polymer electrolyte membrane, electrolyte membrane with catalyst layer, membrane-electrode assembly, and solid polymer fuel cell

A method of manufacturing a membrane-electrode assembly including an electrolyte membrane and a catalyst layer-formed gas diffusion layer bonded to the electrolyte membrane, the method including: a liquid application step of applying, in the atmosphere, a liquid to only a surface of the catalyst layer before bonding; and a thermocompression bonding step of bonding, to the electrolyte membrane, the catalyst layer-formed gas diffusion layer to which the liquid is applied, by thermocompression bonding. Provided is a method of manufacturing a membrane-electrode assembly including a polymer electrolyte membrane and a catalyst layer-formed gas diffusion layer bonded to the polymer electrolyte membrane, in which the manufacturing method can achieve both the relaxation of thermocompression bonding conditions and the improvement of adhesion between the catalyst layer-formed gas diffusion layer and the electrolyte membrane with high productivity.

Method and apparatus for producing membrane electrode assembly

An object of the present invention is to provide, in the manufacture of a membrane-catalyst assembly including a polymer electrolyte membrane and a catalyst layer bonded to the polymer electrolyte membrane, a method that achieves both the relaxation of thermocompression bonding conditions and the improvement of adhesion between the catalyst layer and the electrolyte membrane with high productivity. A main object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a membrane-catalyst assembly including an electrolyte membrane and a catalyst layer bonded to the electrolyte membrane, the method including a liquid application step of applying a liquid to a surface of the catalyst layer before bonding, and a thermocompression bonding step of bonding, to the electrolyte membrane, the catalyst layer to which the liquid is applied by thermocompression bonding.

Method of manufacturing and device for manufacturing membrane-catalyst assembly

A laminated electrolyte membrane including a first layer including a hydrocarbon polymer electrolyte as a major component, and a second layer including a fluoropolymer electrolyte and polyvinylidene fluoride as major components laminated on at least one side of the first layer, wherein the first layer and the second layer are laminated via a region in which components constituting both layers are mixed in a mixed region.

Multilayer electrolyte membrane, membrane electrode assembly, water electrolysis-type hydrogen generator and method of producing multilayer electrolyte membrane

A method of manufacturing a membrane-catalyst assembly including an electrolyte membrane and a catalyst layer bonded to the electrolyte membrane, the method including: a liquid application step of applying, in the atmosphere, a liquid to only a surface of the electrolyte membrane before bonding; and a thermocompression bonding step of bonding, to the catalyst layer, the electrolyte membrane to which the liquid is applied, by thermocompression bonding. Provided is a method of manufacturing a membrane-catalyst assembly including a polymer electrolyte membrane and a catalyst layer bonded to the polymer electrolyte membrane, in which the manufacturing method can achieve both the relaxation of thermocompression bonding conditions and the improvement of adhesion between the catalyst layer and the electrolyte membrane with high productivity.

Manufacturing method and manufacturing device for film/catalyst assembly

The present invention relates to a method for producing a polymer electrolyte molded article, which comprises forming a polymer electrolyte precursor having a protective group and an ionic group, and deprotecting at least a portion of protective groups contained in the resulting molded article to obtain a polymer electrolyte molded article. According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a polymer electrolyte material and a polymer electrolyte molded article, which are excellent in proton conductivity and are also excellent in fuel barrier properties, mechanical strength, physical durability, resistance to hot water, resistance to hot methanol, processability and chemical stability. A polymer electrolyte fuel cell using a polymer electrolyte membrane, polymer electrolyte parts or a membrane electrode assembly can achieve high output, high energy density and long-term durability.

Method for producing polymer electrolyte molded article, polymer electrolyte material, polymer electrolyte membrane, and polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A composite polymer electrolyte membrane has a high proton conductivity even under low-humidity, low-temperature conditions, a reduced dimensional change rate, a high mechanical strength and high chemical stability, and produces a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell with a high output and high physical durability, a membrane electrode assembly, and a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell containing the same. This composite polymer electrolyte membrane contains a composite layer composed mainly of a polyazole-containing nanofiber nonwoven fabric (A) and an ionic group-containing polymer electrolyte (B), the polyazole-containing nanofiber nonwoven fabric (A) being basic.

Composite polymer electrolyte membrane, membrane electrode assembly and solid polymer fuel cell using same

A composite polymer electrolyte membrane includes a composite layer of an aromatic hydrocarbon-based polymer electrolyte and a fluorine-containing polymer porous membrane, wherein a ratio (O/F ratio) of an atomic composition percentage of oxygen O (at %) to an atomic composition percentage of fluorine F (at %) on an outermost surface of the fluorine-containing polymer porous membrane as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is 0.20 or more to 2.0 or less, and the aromatic hydrocarbon-based polymer electrolyte in the composite layer forms a phase separation structure.

Composite polymer electrolyte membrane, and catalyst-coated membrane, membrane electrode assembly, and polymer electrolyte fuel cell using the composite polymer electrolyte membrane

A polymer electrolyte composition has excellent practicality and excellent chemical stability as to be able to withstand a strong oxidizing atmosphere during fuel cell operation and is able to achieve excellent proton conductivity under a low-humidified condition and excellent mechanical strength and physical durability, and a polymer electrolyte membrane, a membrane-electrode assembly, and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell produced therefrom. The polymer electrolyte composition includes an ionic group-containing polymer (A), an azole ring-containing compound (B), and a transition metal-containing additive (C), the transition metal being one or more selected from the group consisting of cobalt, nickel, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, and gold.

Polymer electrolyte composition, polymer electrolyte membrane using same, catalyst coated membrane, membrane electrode assembly and polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A polymer electrolyte composition is excellent in practicality which has such an excellent chemical stability as to be able to withstand a strong oxidizing atmosphere during operation of a fuel cell and is capable of achieving excellent proton conductivity under a low-humidified condition and excellent mechanical strength and physical durability as well as a polymer electrolyte membrane, a membrane electrode assembly, and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell which use the polymer electrolyte composition. The polymer electrolyte membrane is a polymer electrolyte membrane that contains at least an ionic group-containing polymer electrolyte and a polyazole, which is a polymer electrolyte membrane in which a phase separation of 2 nm or larger in which the polyazole is a main component is not observed in transmission type electron microscopic observation.

Polymer electrolyte membrane, catalyst coated membrane, membrane electrode assembly, and polymer electrolyte fuel cell

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Daisuke Izuhara