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Polymer electrolyte fuel cell, electrolyte material therefore and method for its production

a fuel cell and electrolyte technology, applied in the direction of non-aqueous electrolyte cells, cell components, sustainable manufacturing/processing, etc., can solve the problems of insufficient ion exchange capacity of fuel cells, production cost was high, and production cost was not low, so as to achieve excellent ion conductivity and durability, and production cost can be substantially reduced

Inactive Publication Date: 2005-02-17
ASAHI GLASS CO LTD
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an electrolyte material for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell that is easy to synthesize and has a high ion exchange capacity and durability. The invention also provides a polymer electrolyte fuel cell that uses this electrolyte material and has a membrane thickness of from 5 to 70 μm. The invention solves the problems of previous methods by using an initiator with no hydrogen atom involved in chain transfer and carrying out polymerization at a high polymerization temperature of at least 10° C. The electrolyte material can be a copolymer made of a monomer of the formula (I) and tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) that has an ion exchange capacity of from 0.9 to 1.5 (meq / g dry resin). The invention also provides a method for producing the electrolyte material and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell using this electrolyte material.

Problems solved by technology

However, although the above-mentioned conventional copolymer was excellent in such properties as an ion conductivity to accomplish a high cell output power and durability to make a long term operation possible, it had a problem that the production cost was high, and it could not be produced at low costs.
However, the polymer synthesized for brine electrolysis in an Example (UTILITY EXAMPLE Q) of this patent publication, has an ion exchange capacity of 0.85 (meq / g dry resin) (equivalent weight: 1180), and thus, the ion exchange capacity is inadequate for a fuel cell, whereby it has a problem that the resistance is practically too high.

Method used

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  • Polymer electrolyte fuel cell, electrolyte material therefore and method for its production
  • Polymer electrolyte fuel cell, electrolyte material therefore and method for its production
  • Polymer electrolyte fuel cell, electrolyte material therefore and method for its production

Examples

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example 1

POLYMERIZATION EXAMPLE 1

Into a stainless steel autoclave having an internal capacity of 125 cm3, 37.2 g of PFAE and, 205 mg of perfluorobenzoyl peroxide (PFBPO) as an initiator, were introduced and cooled with liquid nitrogen and deaerated. Then, TFE was introduced into the autoclave, and the system was maintained at 80° C. under 0.345 MPaG (gauge pressure, the same applies hereinafter) for 2 hours and 50 minutes. The autoclave was cooled, and the gas in the system was purged to stop the polymerization. After diluting with HCFC 225cb, the polymer was flocculated by an addition of HCFC 141b, followed by filtration. Then, the polymer was stirred in HCFC 225cb and re-flocculated by HCFC 141b, followed by vacuum drying overnight at 80° C. AR of the polymer obtained by titration was 1.12 meq / g, and TQ measured by means of Capillary Rheometer CFT-500D (manufactured by Shimadzu Corporation) was 204° C.

POLYMERIZATION EXAMPLES 2 to 5 and POLYMERIZATION REFERENCE EXAMPLES 1 and 2

TFE / PFAE ...

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Abstract

An electrolyte material for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, which is made of a copolymer comprising repeating units based on CF2═CFCF2OCF2CF2SO3H and repeating units based on tetrafluoroethylene and which has an ion exchange capacity of from 0.9 to 1.5 (meq / g dry resin). This electrolyte material has ion conductivity and durability equal to conventional electrolyte material, is easy to synthesize, has a softening point higher than electrolyte material heretofore widely used for application to fuel cells and is suitable for operation of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell at a temperature higher than the conventional material.

Description

DESCRIPTION TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an electrolyte material for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell. BACKGROUND ART As an electrolyte material to be used as a polymer electrolyte membrane or a proton conductive polymer to be incorporated in a catalyst layer of an electrode constituting a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, it has been common to employ a polymer obtained by hydrolyzing a copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene (hereinafter referred to as “TFE”) with a perfluorovinyl ether of the formula (A), followed by treatment for conversion to an acid-form to convert —SO2F groups to —SO3H groups. In the formula (A), Y is a fluorine atom or a trifluoromethyl group, m is an integer of from 0 to 3, n is an integer of from 1 to 12, and p is 0 or 1, provided that (m+p)>0. CF2═CF(OCF2CFY)mOp(CF2)nSO2F  (A) Among such polymers, particularly preferably employed is one obtained by converting a polymer obtainable by copolymerization of TF...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): H01M4/86H01M4/92H01M6/04H01M6/18H01M8/10
CPCH01M4/8605H01M4/92H01M4/926H01M8/1004Y10T29/49108H01M8/1039H01M2300/0082Y02E60/523H01M8/1023Y02E60/50Y02P70/50
Inventor WATAKABE, ATSUSHI
Owner ASAHI GLASS CO LTD
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