Asahi Glass Company, Limited

Other

Glegg Water Conditioning, Inc.

Panasonic Corporation

Japan Tabacco Inc.

Ashai Glass Company, Limited

Ichiro Terada

Kazuo Umemura

Tetsuji Shimohira

Junjiro Iwamoto

Nobuyuki Kasahara

Mark Philip Huehnergard

Ken Komatsu

Atsushi Watakabe

Hisao Kawazoe

David Florian Tessier

Ian Glenn Towe

Hiroshi Toda

Satoru Hommura

Haruhisa Miyake

Seigo Kotera

Yoshiaki Higuchi

Yoshio Sugaya

Tohru Hoshi

Hiroshi Shimoda

Shigeru Aida

Yoshihiro Hori

Katsuya Ueno

Hiroyuki Watabe

Shinji Kinoshita

Hirokazu Wakabayashi

Kazuo Hamazaki

Josho Kashiwame

Hiroshi Uyama

Ken Iruya

Katsuya Fujii

Hirofumi Horie

Chie Matsubara

Takahisa Ohta

Hiroshi Matsuzawa

Yuko Miyata

Suk-Tae Kwon

Kiyonari Sanekata

Iku Saito

Yoshihiro c/o Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd Intellectual Property Rights Hori

To provide an electrolyte polymer for polymer electrolyte fuel cells, made of a perfluorinated polymer having sulfonic groups, characterized in that in a test of immersing 0.1 g of the polymer in 50 g of a fenton reagent solution containing 3% of an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution and 200 ppm of bivalent iron ions at 40&#xb0; C. for 16 hours, the amount of eluted fluorine ions detected in the solution is not more than 0.002% of the total amount of fluorine in the polymer immersed. The electrolyte polymer of the present invention has very few unstable terminal groups and has an excellent durability, and therefore, is suitable as a polymer constituting an electrolyte membrane for polymer electrolyte fuel cells and a polymer contained in a catalyst layer.

Electrolyte polymer for polymer electrolyte fuel cells, process for its production and membrane-electrode assembly

To obtain a nonwoven fabric which is excellent in the heat resistance and the chemical resistance, of which the fiber diameter is small, and which is excellent in the mechanical strength at a temperature at which it is used; and an electrolyte membrane which is excellent in the dimensional stability when it is swollen by water, and of which an increase in the resistance by a reinforcing material is suppressed. A nonwoven fabriccontaining fibersof an ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene copolymer having a storage elastic modulus E' at 25&#xb0; C. of at least 8&#xd7;10Pa and a melt viscosity measured at 300&#xb0; C. of higher than 60 Pa&#xb7;s and at most 300 Pa&#xb7;s, wherein the average fiber diameter of the fibers is from 0.01 to 3 &#x3bc;m; and an electrolyte membrane reinforced by the nonwoven fabric

Nonwoven fabric and electrolyte membrane

To provide a process whereby an ultrafine fiber of a fluorinated ion exchange resin can be produced easily at low cost, and a method whereby a catalyst layer having a high gas diffusion property can be produced easily at low cost. A process for producing a fiber by spinning a spinning solution containing a fluorinated ion exchange resin and a solvent by a dry spinning method, or producing an electrically conductive composite fiber by spinning n types (where n is an integer of at least 2) of spinning solutions, of which at least one type contains a fluorinated ion exchange resin and a solvent, and at least one type contains an electrically conductive material and a solvent, simultaneously by a dry spinning method, wherein the spinning solution which is being spun by the dry spinning method, is stretched by a gas stream; and a method for producing a catalyst layer, which comprises accumulating the fiber produced by such a process to form a non-woven fabric thereby to obtain a catalyst layer having the non-woven fabric.

Process for producing fiber and method for producing catalyst layer

A thickened ion exchange polymer dispersion is obtained by applying ultrasonic vibration or a shearing force to an ion exchange polymer dispersion having a fluorinated polymer having sulfonic acid groups as an ion exchange polymer uniformly dispersed in a dispersion medium so that the viscosity of the dispersion at 25&#xb0; C. at a shear rate of 10 (1/s) increases 2-2000 times in a thickening step. When formed into a membrane, the dispersion can forms an ion exchange membrane having a uniform and small thickness, high strength, which is free from cracking and shows constant swelling in water and steam. Further, a layer formed by applying a coating solution containing this dispersion and a catalyst powder comprising catalyst metal particles and a carbon support loaded with the catalyst metal particles to a substrate can be used to prepare a membrane-electrode assembly as a catalyst layer for at least one of the cathode and the anode by providing the catalyst layer adjacently to an ion exchange membrane. Because the catalyst layer is highly strong, has few defects and is excellently smooth, a high-performance membrane-electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells can be obtained.

Ion exchange polymer dispersion, process for its production and its use

The present invention provides a membrane-electrode assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell having excellent dimensional stability and mechanical strength, and having high durability at the time of a power generation. Each of polymer electrolyte membranes () have a regionhaving proton conductivity over the entirety in the thickness direction of the membrane and a regionlocated at the outer peripheral portion of the regionand having a non-porous sheet disposed so that the regionhas no proton conductivity over the entirety in the thickness direction of the membrane, and outer edges of the catalyst layers () are disposed so as to be located in the area

Membrane-electrode assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells, and polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A method for producing an electrolyte membrane for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, which comprises forming into a membrane a mixture of a perfluorocarbon polymer having sulfonic acid groups or their precursors and a fluorocarbon polymer which can be fibrillated, laminating a support membrane for stretching to at least one side of the resulting membrane, and stretching the resulting laminated membrane under heating.

Electrolyte membrane for polymer electrolyte fuel cell and producing method thereof

An apparatus for producing deionized water, comprising an electrodialyzer having cation exchange membranes and anion exchange membranes alternately arranged to form demineralizing compartments and concentrating compartments and having ion exchangers accommodated in the demineralizing compartments, and designed to conduct an electric current while supplying water to be treated to the demineralizing compartments, wherein a spacer is arranged in each concentrating compartment to maintain the thickness of the concentrating compartment, and the cation exchange membranes or the anion exchange membranes are incorporated in their dry state in the electrodialyzer, whereby water is supplied to the electrodialyzer, while each ion exchange membrane is brought in contact with the spacer by a pressure from the demineralizing compartment side.

Apparatus for producing deionized water

An apparatus for producing deionized water consisting essentially of an electrodialyzer having cation exchange membranes and anion exchange membranes alternately arranged between a cathode and an anode to form demineralizing compartments and concentrating compartments, and ion exchangers accommodated in the demineralizing compartments, wherein a pressure of from 0.1 to 20 kg/cm,is exerted between the ion exchangers accommodated in the demineralizing compartments and the cation exchange membranes and anion exchange membranes defining the demineralizing compartments.

Method and apparatus for producing deionized water

An apparatus for producing deionized water comprising an electrodialyzer having cation exchange membranes and anion exchange membranes alternately arranged between a cathode and an anode to form demineralizing compartments and concentrating compartments, and ion exchange resin particles packed in the demineralizing compartments, wherein the ion exchange resin particles are a mixture of at least two groups of ion exchange resin particles having a particle size distribution such that particles having particle sizes of from 75 to 125% of the average particle size, are at least 85 wt % of the total amount, and the average particle size of a group of ion exchange resin particles having the maximum average particle size, is at least 1.5 times the average particle size of a group of ion exchange resin particles having the minimum average particle size.

A heterogeneous ion exchange membrane comprising an ion exchange resin and a binder polymer, wherein the binder polymer is a polymer containing at least a mixture comprising low density polyethylene and ethylene-propylene rubber or ethylene-propylene-diene rubber.

Heterogeneous ion exchange membrane and process for its production

Porous ion exchanger and method for producing deionized water

An anion exchanger consisting essentially of an aromatic polysulfone block copolymer of the formula: ##STR1## wherein Ar is ##STR2## or ##STR3## X is --SO.sub.2 --, ##STR4## --S-- or --O--, Y is --SO.sub.2 --, --S-- or --O--, Z is a single bond, --O--, --S--, --SO.sub.2 --, ##STR5## each of R.sub.1 to R.sub.9 which may be the same or different is a hydrocarbon group having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms, each of a to d is an integer of from 0 to 4, e is an integer of from 0 to 3, (f+g) is from 0 to 7, (h+i) is from 0 to 5, each of R.sub.10 and R.sub.11 is a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, and each of m and n is an integer of from 2 to 200, provided m/n=100/1-1/10, and having anion exchange groups introduced to the aromatic rings of the copolymer.

Anion exchanger

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Yokohama, Japan

Ichiro Terada