Toray Industries, Inc.

Ford Motor Company Limited

Daimler Ag

Japan Vilene Company, Ltd.

Hiroaki Umeda

Daisuke Izuhara

Tomoyuki Kunita

Emi Amano

Junpei Yamaguchi

Yumiko Okamoto

Yuka Fujieda

Gang Wu

Naoki Shimoyama

Yunsong Yang

Jing Li

Keping Wang

Takashi Tarao

Qiao Chen

Tatsunori Ito

Shusuke Shirai

Noriko Michihata

Yuuta Wakamoto

Fangke Shao

Tatsuhiro Inoue

An electrolyte membrane is described that has improved bondability with a catalyst layer and that achieves good power generation performance, without the electrolyte membrane undergoing a physical treatment and without any loss of surface modification effect, where the electrolyte membrane comprises a polymer electrolyte and a nonionic fluorochemical surfactant.

Electrolyte membrane

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

An excellent polymer electrolyte composition has excellent chemical stability of being resistant to strong oxidizing atmosphere during operation of fuel cell, and achieves excellent proton conductivity under low-humidification conditions, excellent mechanical strength and physical durability. A polymer electrolyte membrane, a membrane electrode assembly, and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell each use the same. The polymer electrolyte composition contains an ionic group-containing polymer (A), a phosphorus-containing additive (B), and a nitrogen-containing aromatic additive (C), the phosphorus-containing additive (B) and the nitrogen-containing aromatic additive (C) being a compound represented by specific structural formulae.

Polymer electrolyte composition and polymer electrolyte membrane, polymer electrolyte membrane with catalyst layer, membrane electrode assembly, and polymer electrolyte fuel cell each using the same

A polymer electrolyte composition includes at least an ionic group-containing polymer (A), an organic phosphorus-based additive (C), and a nitrogen-containing heteroaromatic additive (D), the nitrogen-containing heteroaromatic additive (D) containing at least three nitrogen-containing heteroaromatic rings in one molecule.

The present invention provides: a polymer electrolyte composition which can achieve excellent proton conductivity under slightly humidified conditions, excellent mechanical strength and excellent physical durability, has excellent practicality, and can be produced using a nitrogen-containing additive, wherein the nitrogen-containing additive can prevent the elution of the additive under a strongly acidic atmosphere during the operation of a fuel cell, has excellent chemical stability so as to tolerate a strongly acidic atmosphere, can be dissolved in various general-purpose organic solvents, has superior processability, can be mixed with an ionic-group-containing polymer, can prevent the occurrence of phase separation during the formation of a film, and can prevent the formation of an island-in-sea-like phase separation structure or the occurrence of bleeding out during the formation of a film; and a polymer electrolyte membrane, a membrane electrode assembly and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, each of which is produced using the polymer electrolyte composition. The polymer electrolyte composition according to the present invention comprises at least an ionic-group-containing polymer (A) and a nitrogen-containing additive (B), said polymer electrolyte composition being characterized in that the nitrogen-containing additive (B) is represented by a specific structural formula.

Polymer electrolyte composition, and polymer electrolyte membrane, membrane electrode complex and solid polymer-type fuel cell each produced using same

It is an object of the present invention to provide a sulfonic acid group-containing polymer and a sulfonic acid group-containing aromatic compound, which have excellent proton conductivity even under the low humidification condition, are excellent in mechanical strength and chemical stability and, moreover, can attain high output and excellent physical durability when processed into a solid polymer fuel cell, as well as a polymer electrolyte material, a polymer electrolyte molded product and a solid polymer fuel cell respectively using the same. The sulfonic acid group-containing polymer of the present invention is a sulfonic acid group-containing polymer comprising a constituent unit containing a sulfonic acid group (A1), and a constituent unit not containing a sulfonic acid group (A2), wherein the polymer contains a constituent unit having a specified structure as at least one constituent unit containing a sulfonic acid group (A1) at 25 mol % or more based on a sum of the constituent unit containing a sulfonic acid group (A1). Further, the polymer electrolyte material, polymer electrolyte molded product and solid polymer fuel cell of the present invention are constituted using such a sulfonic acid group-containing polymer.

Sulfonic acid group-containing polymer, sulfonic acid group-containing aromatic compound and method of making the same, as well as polymer electrolyte material, polymer electrolyte molded product and solid polymer fuel cell using the same

To provide: a block copolymer that exhibits excellent proton conductivity even under low-humidification conditions, exhibits excellent mechanical strength and chemical stability, and when used in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, allows high output and excellent physical durability; a polymer electrolyte material; and a polymer electrolyte form article and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, using the same. The block copolymer of the present invention includes each one or more of: a segment (A1) containing an ionic group; a segment (A2) not containing an ionic group; and a linker moiety connecting the segments. The segment (A1) containing an ionic group comprises a constituent unit represented by a specific structure. The polymer electrolyte material, the polymer electrolyte form article, and the polymer electrolyte fuel cell according to the present invention are manufactured by using the above block copolymer.

Block copolymer, manufacturing method therefor, and polymer electrolyte material, molded polymer electrolyte, and solid-polymer fuel cell using said block copolymer

Provided are an aromatic sulfonic acid derivative and a sulfonic acid group-containing polymer, each of which has excellent proton conductivity even under low humidification conditions, while having excellent mechanical strength and chemical stability, and enables a solid polymer fuel cell to achieve high output and excellent physical durability when used therein. This aromatic sulfonic acid derivative has a specific structure and is characterized in that a sulfonic acid group is introduced into more than 50% of all the phenyl groups. This sulfonic acid group-containing polymer is characterized by being obtained by polymerization using the aromatic sulfonic acid derivative, and is also characterized by having a specific structure.

Aromatic sulfonic acid derivative, sulfonic acid group-containing polymer, block copolymer, polymer electrolyte material, polymer electrolyte form article, and polymer electrolyte fuel cell

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Otsu, Japan

Hiroaki Umeda