Toray Industries, Inc.

Masamichi Utsunomiya

Yasuaki Tanimura

Toshiya Kamae

Fumitaka Watanabe

Yasutaka Okano

Kentaro Kajiwara

Kazuyo Shigeta

Takashi Chida

Toru Sugahara

Katsuya Sode

Junichi Urai

Takashi Ando

Satoru Shimoyama

Masaru Hashimoto

Michio Wakatabe

Toru Miyake

Isamu Shigemoto

Umi Yamamoto

Hiroaki Otake

The objective of the present invention is to provide a method which is for producing a gas diffusion electrode substrate having a high conductivity and a chemical resistance, and by which an increase in production cost can be suppressed. The present invention is a method for producing a gas diffusion electrode substrate in which a microporous layer is formed in a conductive porous body formed by bonding carbon fibers to each other by means of a cured product of a binder resin, the method having, in the following order: a binder resin impregnation step in which a carbon fiber structure is impregnated with a binder resin composition to obtain a pre-impregnated body; a coating step in which the surface of the pre-impregnated body is coated with a microporous layer coating solution; and a heat treatment step in which the pre-impregnated body that has been subjected to the coating step is heat-treated at a temperature of at least 200° C., wherein the binder resin composition is a liquid composition including a binder resin and a carbon powder, the binder resin being a thermosetting resin, and the method does not have a step for heat-treating the pre-impregnated body at a temperature of at least 200° C., between the binder resin impregnation step and the heat treatment step.

Method for producing gas diffusion electrode substrate

In order to provide a gas diffusion electrode medium having high thermal conductivity despite having low density and excellent both in handleability and cell performance, provided is a gas diffusion electrode medium including carbon fiber felt including carbon fibers having an average fiber diameter of 5 to 20 &#x3bc;m, wherein at least a part of the carbon fibers that constitute the carbon fiber felt have a flat part in which, in a plane view of a surface of the carbon fiber felt, a maximum value of a fiber diameter is observed to be 10 to 50% larger than the average fiber diameter, and a frequency of the flat parts at the surface of the carbon fiber felt is 50 to 200/mm.

Gas diffusion electrode medium and method for producing the same, gas diffusion electrode, membrane electrode assembly, and polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A gas diffusion layer comprises a carbon sheet and a microporous layer disposed on at least one surface of the carbon sheet, and meeting the requirement 'C is equal to or greater than 0', wherein:

Gas diffusion layer, membrane electrode assembly, and fuel cell

A fuel cell with high productivity, high power generation performance and high durability is described, along with a gas diffusion electrode base material having a microporous layer on one side of an electrically conductive porous base material, where the electrically conductive porous base material contains carbon fiber and resin carbide and has a density of 0.25 to 0.39 g/cmand a pore mode diameter in a range of 30 to 50 &#x3bc;m. The microporous layer contains a carbonaceous powder and a fluororesin and has a surface roughness of 2.0 to 6.0 &#x3bc;m, a porosity of 50 to 95%, and a pore mode diameter of 0.050 to 0.100 &#x3bc;m.

Gas diffusion electrode base material and production method therefor, and solid polymer fuel cell

The present invention provides a micro-porous layer which provides a fuel battery having high productivity, high power generation performance, and high durability. The present invention provides a micro-porous layer including fibrous carbohydrate having a fiber diameter of 5 nm-10 &#x3bc;m and an aspect ratio of 10 or more. The carbohydrate has an oxygen/carbon element ratio of 0.02 or more.

Micro-porous layer and manufacturing method therefor, gas diffusion electrode substrate, and fuel battery

A gas diffusion electrode is provided that enables the achievement of a fuel cell which has high drainage performance and maintains good power generation performance, while exhibiting high power generation performance particularly at a low temperature (40&#xb0; C.), if used in the fuel cell. The gas diffusion electrode includes a microporous layer on at least one surface of a conductive porous substrate, wherein the microporous layer has a fluorine compound region having a length of 3-10 &#x3bc;m and a void having a length of 3-10 &#x3bc;m.

Gas diffusion electrode and fuel cell

The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a method for producing a gas diffusion electrode base which enables the achievement of a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane; and a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane. For the purpose of achieving the above-described purpose, the present invention has the configuration described below. Namely, a specific gas diffusion electrode base which has a carbon sheet and a microporous layer, and wherein the carbon sheet is porous and the DBP oil absorption of a carbon powder contained in the microporous layer is 70-155 ml/100 g.

Gas diffusion electrode substrate and method for producing gas diffusion electrode substrate

A low-cost gas diffusion electrode is described that overcomes defects of conventional techniques, that achieves both dry-up resistance and flooding resistance, and that has satisfactory power generation performance, where the gas diffusion electrode includes a conductive porous substrate, and a microporous layer containing conductive fine particles and provided on at least one surface of the conductive porous substrate. The gas diffusion electrode has, based on the number of fine pores having an area of 0.25 &#x3bc;mor more that are observed in a cross section of the microporous layer in a thickness direction, a percentage of fine pores having a circularity of 0.5 or more of 50% or more and 100% or less.

Gas diffusion electrode, method for manufacturing gas diffusion electrode, membrane electrode assembly, and fuel cell

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an electrode which is used as a liquid flow-through device electrode and in which liquid flow-through resistance is reduced and the utilization efficiency of carbon fiber is enhanced. Another object of the present invention is to provide a redox flow battery having excellent charge-discharge performance by use of the electrode which is used for the liquid flow-through device. The present invention provides an electrode for a liquid flow-through device, the electrode essentially consisting of a carbon fiber nonwoven fabric, having a thickness of more than 0.40 mm, and having a through-hole disposed therein, or a non-through-hole disposed on one surface or both surfaces of the electrode.

Electrode and redox flow battery

An object of the present invention is to provide an electrode which is used for a liquid flow-through device and in which liquid flow-through resistance is reduced and the utilization efficiency of the surface of carbon fiber is enhanced. Another object of the present invention is to provide a redox flow battery having excellent charge-discharge performance by use of the electrode which is used for the liquid flow-through device. The present invention provides an electrode to be used for a liquid flow-through device, the electrode including a plurality of sheets of carbon fiber nonwoven fabric each having irregularities on a surface of the sheet of carbon fiber nonwoven fabric being stacked or each having a through-hole on the carbon fiber sheet being stacked, and having inside of the electrode a plurality of gaps which is formed by recesses of the irregularities or the through-hole and is not opened in a thickness direction.

Electrode, redox flow battery, and method for producing electrode

A gas diffusion electrode in which a microporous layer is provided on at least one surface of a conductive porous substrate, wherein the areas obtained by dividing the cross section perpendicular to the plane of the microporous layer into three equal parts in the thickness direction are a first area, a second area, and a third area, with respect to the conductive porous substrate side, the fluorine strength of the third area being 0.8 to 1.2 times the fluorine strength of the second area.

A porous carbon sheet includes a carbon fiber and a binding material, wherein when in a measured surface depth distribution, a ratio of an area of a portion having a depth of 20 &#x3bc;m or less in a measured area of one surface is a surface layer area ratio X, and a ratio of an area of a portion having a depth of 20 &#x3bc;m or less in a measured area of another surface is a surface layer area ratio Y, the surface layer area ratio X is larger than the surface layer area ratio Y, and a difference between the surface layer area ratios is 3% or more and 12% or less.

Carbon sheet, gas diffusion electrode substrate and fuel cell

A gas diffusion electrode has a microporous layer on at least one surface of an electrical conducting porous substrate. The microporous layer has at least a first microporous layer in contact with the electrical conducting porous substrate, and a second microporous layer. The gas diffusion electrode has a pore size distribution with a peak at least in a first region of 10 &#x3bc;m or more and 100 &#x3bc;m or less, a second region of 0.2 &#x3bc;m or more and less than 1.0 &#x3bc;m, and a third region of 0.050 &#x3bc;m or more and less than 0.2 &#x3bc;m. The total volume of the pores in the second region is 10% or more and 40% or less of the total volume of the pores in the first region, and the total volume of the pores in the third region is 40% or more and 80% or less of the total volume of the pores in the second region.

Gas diffusion electrode

A gas diffusion electrode substrate has an electrically conductive porous substrate and a microporous layer-on one side of the electrically conductive porous substrate. The microporous layer-includes a dense portion A and a dense portion B. The dense portion A is a region containing a fluorine resin and a carbonaceous powder having a primary particle size of 20 nm to 39 nm. The dense portion A has a thickness of 30% to 100% with respect to the thickness of the microporous layer-as 100% and a width of 10 &#x3bc;m to 200 &#x3bc;m. The dense portion B is a region containing a fluorine resin and a carbonaceous powder having a primary particle size of 40 nm to 70 nm.

Gas diffusion electrode base, laminate and fuel cell

A gas diffusion electrode substrate that is used in a fuel cell and is constituted by an electrode substrate and microporous parts, in which a microporous part (A) is formed on one surface of the electrode substrate with a thickness in the range of 10 &#x3bc;m or more and 60 &#x3bc;m or less, and in the gas diffusion electrode substrate, the pore volume of pores with a pore size of 0.1 &#x3bc;m or more and less than 10 &#x3bc;m is within the range of 0.9 times or more and 5 times or less of the pore volume of pores with a pore size of 10 &#x3bc;m or more and less than 100 &#x3bc;m.

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Otsu, Japan

Masamichi Utsunomiya