Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Jsr Corporation

Other

Honda Giken Kabushiki Kaisha

Yoichi Asano

Nagayuki Kanaoka

Ryoichiro Takahashi

Masaaki Nanaumi

Hiroshi Sohma

Nobuhiro Saito

Takuma Yamawaki

Naoki Mitsuta

Kaoru Fukuda

Chihiro Wake

Masaru Iguchi

Keisuke Andou

Kohei Goto

Hiroshi Morikawa

Chikara Iwasawa

Takashi Komura

Masahiro Ise

Yuichiro Hama

Shintaro Tanaka

Junji Matsuo

Osamu Kakutani

Takao Fukumizu

Jun Takano

Hiroshi Matsumori

Hiroshi Souma

Hideki Watanabe

Takashi Suzuki

Masaaki Sakano

Naoyuki Enjoji

Yoshikazu Fujisawa

Yoshinori Wariishi

Hiromichi Yoshida

Kentaro Nagoshi

Hiroshi Shinkai

Toshihiro Otsuki

Makoto Higami

Masayuki Takahashi

Yoshiaki Takagi

Mayumi Kakuta

Fusazumi Masaka

Mihoko Kawaharada

Norihiro Ohta

Atsuhito Yoshizawa

Yuji Naito

Gen Okiyama

Hiroshi Takeshita

Noriko Ohta

In pore diameter distribution curves of a first stack body formed by stacking a first gas diffusion layer and a first porous layer of an anode, and of a second stack body formed by stacking a second gas diffusion layer and a second porous layer of a cathode, on a region where a pore diameter is smaller than a reference pore diameter at which a pore volume is maximum, both the curves coincide with each other for the most part. On a region where the pore diameter is equal to or larger than the reference pore diameter, the distribution curve of the second stack body lies above that of the first stack body. A pore volume ratio which is a ratio of the total pore volume of the second stack body to the total pore volume of the first stack body is in the range of 1.10 to 1.60.

Membrane electrode assembly

A membrane electrode assembly is prepared by sandwiching an electrolyte membrane between an anode and a cathode. In the anode, a first porous layer is interposed between a first electrode catalyst layer and a first gas diffusion layer. In the cathode, a second porous layer is interposed between a second electrode catalyst layer and a second gas diffusion layer. A first piled body of the first gas diffusion layer and the first porous layer has a percolation pressure higher than that of a second piled body containing the second gas diffusion layer and the second porous layer. The first piled body has a percolation pressure of 25 to 120 kPa, and the second piled body has a percolation pressure of 5 to 25 kPa.

A membrane electrode assembly includes a solid polymer electrolyte membrane sandwiched between a pair of electrodes. Each of the electrodes has an electrode catalyst layer and a gas diffusion layer, the electrode catalyst layer facing the electrolyte membrane. A porous layer having a thickness of 5 to 40 &#x3bc;m and a seepage pressure of 10 to 60 kPa is interposed between the electrode catalyst layer and the gas diffusion layer. The porous layers preferably have a spring constant of 100 to 1000 GPa/m. The membrane electrode assembly may be devoid of any one of the porous layers.

A fuel cell having an oxygen-containing gas flow field and a fuel gas flow field, an oxygen-containing gas supply apparatus for supplying an oxygen-containing gas to the oxygen-containing gas flow field, a fuel gas supply apparatus for supplying a fuel gas to the fuel gas flow field, a scavenging gas supply apparatus for supplying air as a scavenging gas to the fuel gas flow field, and a controller are provided. The controller includes a voltage detection unit for detecting the voltage of the fuel cell after operation of the fuel cell is stopped and a scavenging control unit for starting scavenging in the fuel gas flow field by the scavenging gas supply apparatus after the detected voltage is decreased temporarily, increased, and decreased again to become a preset voltage or less.

Fuel cell system and scavenging method therefor

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 including: a solid polymer electrolyte membrane having proton conductivity; a cathode electrode catalyst layer disposed on one side of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane; an anode electrode catalyst layer disposed on the other side of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane; and two gas diffusion layers disposed on a side of the cathode electrode catalyst layer and a side of the anode electrode catalyst layer, respectively; wherein the gas diffusion layer in the anode side is smaller in contact angle to water than the gas diffusion layer in the cathode side. The membrane electrode assembly also includes at least two coating layers different in properties from each other between the gas diffusion layer and the cathode electrode catalyst layer, and at least two coating layers different in properties from each other between the gas diffusion layer and the anode electrode catalyst layer.

Membrane electrode assembly for use in solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A membrane electrode assembly that includes a cathode electrode catalyst layer and an anode electrode catalyst layer respectively disposed on one side and the other side of a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, gas diffusion layers disposed respectively on the sides of the electrode catalyst layers; and intermediate layers having pores and disposed respectively between the electrode catalyst layer and the gas diffusion layer and between the electrode catalyst layer and the gas diffusion layer. The volume per unit area and per unit mass of the pores having pore size of 0.1 to 10 &#x3bc;m in the intermediate layer in the cathode side is larger than that in the intermediate layer in the anode side. The pore volume of the intermediate layer in the cathode side is 1.7 to 4.3 &#x3bc;l/cm/mg and that of the intermediate layer in the anode side is 0.5 to 1.4 &#x3bc;l/cm/mg.

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

Anodes are provided on a porous resin film, a polymer electrolyte membrane is provided on the anodes, and cathodes are provided on the polymer electrolyte membrane to form a plurality of membrane electrode assemblies as power generation units. An electrically conductive member is connected to the cathode of a membrane electrode assembly, and a metal film is electrically connected to the anode of an adjacent membrane electrode assembly. The electrically conductive member has an expansion connected to the metal film. The cathode of the membrane electrode assembly and the anode of the adjacent membrane electrode assembly are electrically connected by the electrically conductive member and the metal film.

Fuel cell without Z-like connection plates and the method producing the same

In a polymer electrolyte fuel cell in which a cathode diffusion layer, a cathode electrode catalyst layer, a polymer electrolyte membrane, an anode electrode catalyst layer, and an anode diffusion layer are laminated in this order, electron conductivity of the cathode electrode catalyst layer at a portion on the side of the cathode diffusion layer is higher than at a portion on the side of the polymer electrolyte membrane and electron conductivity of the cathode electrode catalyst layer at the portion on the side of the polymer electrolyte membrane is lower than at the portion on the side of the cathode diffusion layer, and furthermore, electron conductivity of the anode electrode catalyst layer at a portion on the side of the anode diffusion layer is higher than at a portion on the side of the polymer electrolyte membrane and electron conductivity of the anode electrode catalyst layer at the portion on the side of the polymer electrolyte membrane is lower than at the portion on the side of the anode diffusion layer.

Polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A cell assembly () includes a first unit cell () and a second unit cell (). The first unit cell () and the second unit cell () are juxtaposed such that electrode surfaces of the first unit cell () and electrode surfaces of the second unit cell () are aligned in parallel with each other. An oxygen-containing gas flow passage () includes a first oxygen-containing gas passage () in the first unit cell (), an oxygen-containing gas connection passage () in a connection passage member (), and a second oxygen-containing gas passage () in the second unit cell (). The first oxygen-containing gas passage (), the oxygen-containing gas connection passage (), and the second oxygen-containing gas passage () are connected serially from the first unit cell () to the second unit cell ().

Solid polymer cell assembly

An electrode structure having a pair of electrode catalyst layers and a polymer electrolyte membrane held between both the electrode catalyst layers is provided. The polymer electrolyte membrane is a sulfonate of a hydrocarbon-based polymer comprising a main chain in which two or more benzene rings are bound together directly or through a divalent group. The membrane includes 5% or more by weight of water coordinated to protons of sulfonic acid groups. The polymer electrolyte membrane may include a fluorine-containing ion conducting polymer such that the ratio of fluorine content in the polymer electrolyte membrane to the fluorine content in the electrode catalyst layers is in the range of from 0.2 to 2.0. The electrode structure constitutes a fuel cell, which generates power when oxidizing gas is supplied to the one side of the electrode structure and reducing gas to the other side.

Electrode structure for solid polymer fuel cell, its production method, and solid polymer fuel cell

The present invention provides a proton conductive membrane having capabilities of self-generating water and maintaining water, excellent ion conductivity and excellent effect of inhibiting crossover and usable for solid polymer electrolyte type fuel cells and also provides a proton conductive composition used for preparing the proton conductive membrane. The proton conductive composition comprises 100 parts by weight of a polyarylene having a sulfonic group and 0.01 to 80 parts by weight of at least one metal catalyst selected from the group consisting of platinum, gold, palladium, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium, or comprises 100 parts by weight of a polyarylene having a sulfonic group, 0.01 to 80 parts by weight of the metal catalyst, and 0.01 to 50 parts by weight of metal oxide fine particles and/or fibers in total.

Proton conductive composition and proton conductive membrane

Growing community of inventors

Wako, Japan

Yoichi Asano