Nippon Soken, Inc.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Katsuhide Kikuchi

Hitoshi Hayashi

Kenji Takigawa

Yoshimasa Hijikata

Akira Takeuchi

Toshiyuki Kawai

Junji Nakanishi

Kenji Tsubosaka

Shinichi Ito

Tetsuro Kikuchi

Hiroshi Fujitani

Shinji Kishida

Akito Kawasumi

Yuichi Gomi

Naohiko Ohkubo

A method of manufacturing a fuel cell. An insulating member has a plurality of communication holes disposed on a side of a gas diffusion layer, which is formed by stacking a layer made of a carbon fiber and a water-repellent layer, where the water-repellent layer is provided. The gas diffusion layer and the insulating member are sandwiched by a pair of electrodes, and a pair of contact pressure plates are disposed on respective rear surfaces of the pair of electrodes so as to sandwich the pair of electrodes so that the gas diffusion layer is pressurized by the pair of contact pressure plates. When a voltage is applied to the pair of electrodes while maintaining the pressurized state, the protrusion portion of the carbon fiber is burned and removed by Joule heat.

Manufacturing method and manufacturing apparatus for gas diffusion layer of fuel cell, and fuel cell

A battery capacity measuring device in accordance with the present invention has a fully-charged state detector ( ), a detected current integrator ( ), a divider ( ), and a corrector ( ) incorporated in a microcomputer ( ). The fully-charged state detector detects that a battery is fully charged. The detected current integrator integrates current values that are detected by a current sensor during a period from the instant the battery is fully charged to the instant it is fully charged next. The divider divides the integrated value of detected current values by the length of the period. The corrector corrects a detected current using the quotient provided by the divider as an offset. Furthermore, a remaining battery capacity calculating system comprises a voltage detecting unit ( ), a current detecting unit ( ), an index calculating unit, a control unit, and a calculating unit. The voltage detecting unit detects the voltage at the terminals of a battery. The current detecting unit detects a current flowing through the battery. The index calculating unit calculates the index of polarization in the battery according to the detected current. The control unit controls the output voltage of an alternator so that the index of polarization will remain within a predetermined range which permits limitation of the effect of polarization on the charged state of the battery. When the index of polarization remains within the predetermined range, the calculating unit calculates the remaining capacity of the battery according to the terminal voltage of the battery, that is, the open-circuit voltage of the battery.

Battery capacity measuring and remaining capacity calculating system

An antiferroelectric liquid crystal composition having a chiral smectic C,* phase composed by blending liquid crystal composition-constituting compounds having the same direction of inclination of optic axis produced by application of an electric field and/or comprised of a mixture of two enantiomers of a liquid crystal material; one having the stereosense (&plus;) and the other having the stereosense (&minus;). The stereosense is defined so that, when the molecule is viewed so that the bond between the core group and the asymmetric carbon is behind the asymmetric carbon atom, the stereosense is (&plus;) if the remaining three groups (or atoms) are arranged clockwise in order of length of the groups (or, if the groups are the same length, in order of their volume), and the stereosense is (&minus;) if the groups are arranged counter clockwise.

Antiferroelectric liquid crystal composition

The present invention discloses an antiferroelectric liquid crystal composition respectively containing the compounds of formula (1), (2), (3) or (4), wherein R.sub.1, R.sub.3, R.sub.5 and R.sub.7 are alkyl groups having 7-13 carbon atoms, R.sub.2, R.sub.4, R.sub.6 and R.sub.8 are alkyl groups having 4-8 carbon atoms, any of the four hydrogen atoms in each of the phenyl groups of the formulas may be substituted with a halogen atom such as F, Cl or Br, or a CH.sub.3 group, and X indicates --O-- or --. ##STR1##

An antiferroelectric composition comprising 70 wt % or more of a mixture consisting of two groups of compounds represented by the following general formula (I): ##STR1## wherein each of R, R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are an atom or an atomic group, R is an atomic group having the most carbon atoms, C* represents an asymmetric carbon, R.sup.1, R.sup.2, and R.sup.3 are numbered in order of increasing number of carbon atoms (i.e. R.sup.1 &lt;R.sup.2 &lt;R.sup.3), or, if two or more groups have the same number of carbon atoms, they are numbered in order of increasing atomic group weight or increasing atomic weight, and wherein one component of the mixture has R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 arranged clockwise when the molecule is viewed along the R--C bond, with the C* atom in front, and the other, counterclockwise. The composition provides an antiferroelectric liquid crystal composition having a lower crystal temperature and a wide liquid crystal temperature range with a small number of component compounds.

Antiferroelectric liquid crystal composition and liquid crystal

Antiferroelectric liquid crystal compositions which employ mixtures of antiferroelectric liquid crystal compounds represented by general formulas (1) and (2), and also antiferroelectric liquid crystal compounds represented by general formula (3). ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 -R.sub.6 are alkyl groups, and one or more of the 4 hydrogen atoms of each of the phenyl groups in the formulas may be replaced with a fluorine atom.

An antiferroelectric liquid crystal composition comprising a liquid crystal composition having the chiralsmectic C.sub.A phase and a compound represented by the formula (I) shown below: ##STR1## wherein X is --CH.sub.3, --CF.sub.3 or --C.sub.2 H.sub.5 ; R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are straight-chain or branched alkyl radicals having 3 to 14 and 3 to 10 carbon atoms respectively; Y represents a single bond, or --O--, --CO--, --COO-- or --OCO-- radical; Z represents --COO--, --C.tbd.C-- or --CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 -- radical; and A.sup.1, A.sup.2 and A.sup.3 independently represent a six membered ring including benzene rings, cyclohexane rings, pyridine rings, and pyrimidine rings, at least one hydrogen of which six membered rings may be replaced by a fluorine atom, chlorine atom, bromine atom, cyano group, nitro group, methyl group, ethyl group or methoxy group.

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Kariya, Japan

Katsuhide Kikuchi