Method of inspecting output of fuel cell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10784525-B2
Application number	US-201816140755-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2018
Priority date	Sep 29, 2017
Publication date	Sep 22, 2020
Grant date	Sep 22, 2020

Abstract

In a method of inspecting output of a fuel cell, a reduction step is performed, and thereafter, a measurement step is performed. In the reduction step, reduction treatment is applied to electrode catalyst contained in an anode and a cathode. After the reduction treatment is applied to the electrode catalyst of the anode and the cathode, in the measurement step, measurement current which is smaller than rated current of the fuel cell, is applied to the anode and the cathode to inspect the output of the fuel cell.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of inspecting a voltage output of a fuel cell, the fuel cell comprising an electrolyte membrane of solid polymer, an anode provided on one surface of the electrolyte membrane, and a cathode provided on another surface of the electrolyte membrane, the method comprising:
a reduction step of applying reduction treatment to electrode catalyst contained in the anode and the cathode; and
a measurement step of measuring the voltage output of the fuel cell after the reduction treatment is applied to the electrode catalyst, by applying measurement current which is smaller than rated current of the fuel cell, to the anode and the cathode;
wherein in the reduction step, while a fuel gas is supplied to the anode and an inert gas is supplied to the cathode, cyclic voltage is applied to the fuel cell, the cyclic voltage being increased and decreased within a predetermined range having a minimum voltage less than a reduction potential of the electrode catalyst.

2. The method of inspecting the voltage output of the fuel cell according to claim 1 , further comprising an oxidation step of applying oxidation treatment to the electrode catalyst before the reduction step.

3. The method of inspecting the voltage output of the fuel cell according to claim 2 , wherein, in the oxidation step, a fuel gas is supplied to the anode and an oxygen-containing gas is supplied to the cathode to regulate the voltage applied between the anode and the cathode to be not less than a reduction potential of the electrode catalyst.

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Tsuge Hodaka
• Kato Takashi
• Yamada Tadaaki
• Mizuno Ayumi
• Shimomura You

Classifications

• H01M8/04679

  of fuel cell stacks · CPC title

• H01M2008/1095

  Fuel cells with polymeric electrolytes · CPC title

• H01M8/04619 Primary

  of fuel cell stacks · CPC title

• H01M8/0488

  of fuel cell stacks · CPC title

• H01M8/1004

  characterised by membrane-electrode assemblies [MEA] (H01M8/12 takes precedence) · CPC title