Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Satoshi Nakazawa

Naoki Ito

Masahiro Imanishi

Shigeaki Murata

Keisuke Nagasaka

Hiroyuki Kawai

A fuel cell includes: a membrane electrode assembly including a first catalyst layer, a second catalyst layer, and an electrolyte membrane disposed between the first catalyst layer and the second catalyst layer; a first gas diffusion layer laminated on the first catalyst layer; a second gas diffusion layer laminated on the second catalyst layer; a support disposed on at least a part of a periphery around the membrane electrode assembly; and a cover sheet disposed between the first gas diffusion layer and the membrane electrode assembly to bridge the support and at least one end portion of the electrolyte membrane or the first catalyst layer, in which the cover sheet includes a sheet portion as a layer on a side of the membrane electrode assembly and a permeation portion laminated on the sheet portion and permeating into the first gas diffusion layer.

Fuel cell

A fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly, a first gas diffusion layer, a second gas diffusion layer, a support, and a cover sheet. There is a space having a distance Lbetween an end face of the support and an end face of the membrane electrode assembly. The expression of E>0.048×L/tis satisfied, where E is the elastic modulus of the cover sheet, and t is the thickness of the cover sheet. The reduction rate of voids in at least a part of a portion of the first gas diffusion layer under which the cover sheet is located with respect to voids in a portion of the first gas diffusion layer under which the cover sheet is not located is 5% or more and 25% or less.

Fuel cell and method for manufacturing fuel cell

The present disclosure provides a fuel cell unit cell with high durability. The fuel cell unit cell of the disclosure with increased durability is a fuel cell unit cell having a membrane electrode assembly and a support frame bonded together by a hot-melt adhesive layer, wherein the membrane electrode assembly has an electrolyte membrane and a pair of electrode catalyst layers stacked on either side of the electrolyte membrane, and on at least one side of the membrane electrode assembly, the electrode catalyst layers are stacked inside the outer peripheral sides of the electrolyte membrane and the hot-melt adhesive layer bonds together the outer peripheral sides of the electrolyte membrane and the support frame, with the hot-melt adhesive layer comprising an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer with an ethylene-derived unit content of 90 to 99 mol %, or a polyamide in which the main chain has 9 to 15 methylene groups for each amide group, or a mixture of the two.

Fuel cell unit cell

A substratethat selectively allows hydrogen to permeate therethrough is formed with a catalyst thin layeron a first sidethereof and is heated in a furnace tube, which functions as a reactor, of a heating furnacewhile a raw material gas to the catalyst thin layeris fed. Hydrogen produced on the first sideof the substrateas a result of the formation of carbon nanotubesis separated from the raw material gas and is allowed to permeate to a second sidethereof.

Growing community of inventors

Susono, Japan

Satoshi Nakazawa