Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Jsr Corporation

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Giken Kabushiki Kaisha

Nagayuki Kanaoka

Hiroshi Sohma

Masaru Iguchi

Yoichi Asano

Naoki Mitsuta

Masaaki Nanaumi

Nobuhiro Saito

Ryoichiro Takahashi

Kaoru Fukuda

Yoshitaka Yamakawa

Hiroshi Soma

Kohei Goto

Toshihiro Otsuki

Yuichiro Hama

Toshihiro Ohtsuki

Masaaki Sakano

Hiroshi Shinkai

Toshiaki Kadota

Makoto Higami

Igor Rozhanskii

Junji Matsuo

Mayumi Kakuta

Ryohei Ishimaru

Fusazumi Masaka

Hiroshi Souma

Masaru Oda

Keisuke Andou

Takaki Nakagawa

Hiroshi Morikawa

Masayuki Takahashi

Hayato Kaji

Junichi Yano

Shunsuke Itami

Kiyonori Kita

Teruhiko Umehara

Fusao Nakagawa

Yuji Naito

A fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly and a first separator. The first separator includes a first reactant gas channel, a first reactant gas manifold, and a first buffer portion. The first buffer portion is located outside of a power generation region of an electrode catalyst layer of the first electrode. The first buffer portion connects the first reactant gas channel to the first reactant gas manifold. A gas diffusion layer of the first electrode extends along a surface of the first separator to a first buffer region facing the first buffer portion. An intermediate layer of the first electrode covers a portion of the gas diffusion layer of the first electrode in the first buffer region.

Fuel cell

A fuel cell is formed by sandwiching a membrane electrode assembly between a first separator and a second separator. The membrane electrode assembly includes a cathode, an anode, and a solid polymer electrolyte membrane interposed between the cathode and the anode. In the membrane electrode assembly, a catalyst area of an electrode catalyst layer of the cathode and an electrode catalyst layer of the anode terminates at a position spaced upwardly from lower ends of an oxygen-containing gas flow field and a fuel gas flow field.

Solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell

Provided is a varnish which contains a solvent and an electrode electrolyte for a solid polymer fuel cell electrolyte, which contains a polymer with a structure having a main chain including a polyphenylene, a side chain including a sulfonic acid group and a repeating structural unit as a side chain including a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group.

Varnish for a solid polymer fuel cell

Disclosed is an electrode electrolyte for solid polymer fuel cells, which uses a polymer electrolyte containing a polyarylene copolymer containing a nitrogen-containing aromatic ring having a substituent represented by &#x2014;SOH, &#x2014;(O(CH)SOH or &#x2014;O(CF)SOH (wherein h represents an integer of 1-12). By having such a constitution, the electrode electrolyte for solid polymer fuel cells can be produced at a low cost, while being excellent in proton conductivity, dimensional stability, hydrothermal resistance and mechanical strength. In addition, this electrode electrolyte for solid polymer fuel cells enables to recover a catalyst metal.

Electrode electrolyte for polymer-type fuel cell, and use thereof

A membrane-electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell that exhibits superior dimensional stability to high temperature of hot water generated on power generation, and that has both excellent power generation performance and durability in a low temperature environment is provided. According to the membrane-electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell in which a polyarylene-based copolymer having a specific repeating constitutional unit is used as a proton conductive membrane, the membrane-electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell that exhibits superior dimensional stability to high temperature of hot water generated on power generation, and that has both excellent power generation performance and durability in a low temperature environment can be provided.

Membrane-electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell

There is provided an electrode structure for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell having excellent power generation performance and excellent durability and a method for manufacturing the same. Also provided is a polymer electrolyte fuel cell including the electrode structure and an electrical apparatus and a transport apparatus using the polymer electrolyte fuel cell. The electrode structure includes a polymer electrolyte membranesandwiched between a pair of electrode catalyst layers, 1 containing carbon particles supporting catalyst particles. The polymer electrolyte membraneis made of a sulfonated polyarylene-based polymer. The sulfonated polyarylene-based polymer has an ion exchange capacity in the range of 1.7 to 2.3 meq/g, and the polymer contains a component insoluble in N-methylpyrrolidone in an amount of 70% or less relative to the total amount of the polymer, after the polymer is subjected to heat treatment for exposing it under a constant temperature atmosphere of 12&#xb0; C. for 200 hours. A catalyst paste containing catalyst particles and a polymer electrolyte is coated on a sheet-like supportand dried to form an electrode catalyst layercontaining a solvent in an amount in the range of 0.5% or less by weight of the total membrane. The electrode catalyst layers, 3 are thermally transferred and joined on both sides of the polymer electrolyte membrane

Electrode structure for polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising sulfonated polyarylene-based polymer and method for manufactuing same

The present invention provides an electrode paste which comprises catalyst particles, a solvent and an varnish which comprises a solvent and an electrode electrolyte for a solid polymer fuel cell electrolyte, wherein the electrode electrolyte comprises a polymer with a structure having a main chain including a polyphenylene, a side chain including a sulfonic acid group and a repeating structural unit represented by formula (C) as a side chain including a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group; wherein the structural variables are defined herein.

Polyphenylene-containing electrode paste

A membrane electrode assembly for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell has superior power generation characteristics under low humidity conditions and superior starting characteristics under low temperature conditions. In the membrane electrode assembly for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell in which a polymer electrolyte membrane is disposed between a pair of electrodes containing a catalyst, the polymer electrolyte membrane has a polymer segment A having an ion conductive component and a polymer segment B not having an ion conductive component. Furthermore, in the case in which the polymer electrolyte membrane is immersed in water at 90&#xb0; C. for 30 minutes, absorbed water which exhibits a thawing temperature of from &#x2212;30 to 0&#xb0; C. is in a range from 0.01 to 3.0 g per 1 g of the polymer.

Membrane electrode assembly and polymer electrolyte fuel cell therewith

A membrane electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells exhibits higher proton conductivity and superior thermal resistance, in which the solid polymer electrolyte membrane has a nitrogen atom and a sulfonic acid group, and a principal chain of a constitutional unit is a phenylene bond, is provided. In particular, the membrane electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells preferably contains the sulfonated polyarylene expressed by the formula (1). 

A membrane-electrode assembly having superior hot water resistance has a membrane containing an aromatic polymer having a repeating unit expressed by general formula (1):  in which A represents independently either &#x2014;CO&#x2014; or &#x2014;SO&#x2014;; B represents independently an oxygen atom or sulfur atom; Rto R, which may be identical or different from each other, represent a hydrogen atom, fluorine atom, alkyl group, phenyl group or nitrile group; Rto R, which may be identical or different from each other, represent a hydrogen atom, alkyl group or phenyl group; and 'a' represents an integer of 0 to 4.

A polymer electrolyte membrane obtained by subjecting a sulfonated polyarylene membrane having an initial water content of 80-300 weight % to a hot-water treatment. A composite polymer electrolyte membrane comprising a matrix made of a first sulfonated aromatic polymer having a high ion exchange capacity, and a reinforcing material constituted by a second sulfonated aromatic polymer having a low ion exchange capacity in the form of fibers or a porous membrane.

Polymer electrolyte membrane and polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising same

Membrane-electrode assemblies are provided having a solid polymer electrolyte membrane that exhibits higher proton conductivity over a wide temperature range, and exhibits superior hot water resistance, chemical stability, toughness and mechanical strength. The membrane-electrode assemblies utilized for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells include an anode electrode, a cathode electrode and a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, the anode electrode and the cathode electrode disposed on opposite sides of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane. The solid polymer electrolyte membrane contains a polyarylene copolymer with a specific constitutional unit having a fluorine atom and nitrile group introduced in their principal chains.

Membrane-electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell and method of producing the same

A membrane-electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells, in which a sulfonic acid is an ion exchange group, and the heat resistance is superior, is provided. The membrane-electrode assembly for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells contains a polymer including a principal chain that forms polyphenylene structure, a branched chain having a sulfonic acid group, and a branched chain having a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group. It is preferred that a branched chain having a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group is a structure expressed by the general formula (D) below. 

Disclosed is a polymer electrolyte having a protonic acid group that is excellent in thermal stability and dimensional stability. The polymer electrolyte includes copolymers having a sulfonic acid group which has a structure represented by the following formula: wherein X is a divalent electron-withdrawing group; Y is an oxygen or a sulfur; Z and Q are each a direct bond, &#x2014;O&#x2014;, &#x2014;S&#x2014;, &#x2014;CO&#x2014;, &#x2014;SO&#x2014;, &#x2014;[C(R')]&#x2014; (g: integer of from 1 to 8), etc.; R, R&#x2032; and Rto Rare each a hydrogen, a fluorine, an alkyl, a fluorine-substituted alkyl, an aryl or a nitrile; m, n, p, q, r, s, t and u are each an integer of from 0 to 4 (with the proviso that p+q&#x2267;1); and A is a group represented by Formula (5) or (5) below: wherein W is a divalent electron-withdrawing group; S is a protonic acid group; i is an integer of from 1 to 5; and j is an integer of from 1 to 7.

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Wako, Japan

Nagayuki Kanaoka