Electrolyte solution and method for producing same, continuously dissolving facility, electrolyte membrane, electrode catalyst layer, membrane electrode assembly and fuel cell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11374247-B2
Application number	US-202016745924-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 17, 2020
Priority date	Jul 2, 2013
Publication date	Jun 28, 2022
Grant date	Jun 28, 2022

Abstract

A method for producing an electrolyte solution including a supply step of continuously supplying an emulsion based a polymer electrolyte and a solvent into a dissolution facility, and a dissolution step of continuously dissolving the polymer electrolyte in the solvent by heating the interior of the dissolution facility to obtain the electrolyte solution.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electrolyte solution comprising:
a fluorine-based polymer electrolyte which contains a —SO 3 X group where X is hydrogen, an alkali metal, an alkaline-earth metal or NR 1 R 2 R 3 R 4 where R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 are each independently an alkyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms or hydrogen; and
a water-containing solvent,
wherein in a dynamic light scattering particle-size measurement, at least one particle-size peak top (A) is present in a range of 0.10 μm or more and less than 5.0 μm and at least one particle-size peak top (B) is present in a range of 5.0 μm or more and 50.0 μm or less, a scattering intensity ratio (A/B) of the particle-size peak top (A) to the particle-size peak top (B) is 1.0×10 −1 or more and 5.0 or less, and a fluorine ion concentration is 500 ppm or less based on a solid-content mass of the fluorine-based polymer electrolyte, and wherein the difference in particle size between the particle-size peak top (A) and the particle-size peak top (B) is at least 1 μm.

2. The electrolyte solution according to claim 1 , wherein no scattering peak is present in the laser diffraction/scattering particle size distribution measurement.

3. The electrolyte solution according to claim 1 , wherein the fluorine-based polymer electrolyte contains a copolymer having a repeating unit represented by the following formula (1) and a repeating unit represented by the following formula (2):
—(CFZ—CF 2 )—  (1)

where Z represents H, Cl, F or a perfluoroalkyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms,
—(CF 2 —CF(—O—(CF 2 CF(CF 3 )O) n —(CF 2 ) m —SO 3 X))—  (2)

where X is hydrogen, an alkali metal, an alkaline-earth metal or NR 1 R 2 R 3 R 4 where R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 are each independently an alkyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms or hydrogen: m is an integer of 0 to 12; and n is an integer of 0 to 2, with the proviso that m and n are not simultaneously 0.

4. The electrolyte solution according to claim 3 , wherein the Z is F, X is K, Na or Li, n is 0 and m is 2.

5. The electrolyte solution according to claim 3 , wherein the Z is F, X is Na, n is 0 and m is 2.

6. The electrolyte solution according to claim 1 , wherein the fluorine-based polymer electrolyte has an equivalent mass of 300 to 1,000 g/eq.

7. The electrolyte solution according to claim 1 , wherein the fluorine-based polymer electrolyte has a solid-content of 11 to 50 mass %.

8. The electrolyte solution according to claim 1 , wherein the water-containing solvent contains 80 to 100 mass % of water and 0 to 20 mass % of an alcohol.

9. An electrolyte membrane formed of the electrolyte solution according to claim 1 .

10. An electrode catalyst layer formed of the electrolyte solution according to claim 1 .

11. A membrane electrode assembly having both an electrolyte membrane and electrode catalyst layer formed of the electrolyte solution according to claim 1 .

12. A fuel cell having the membrane electrode assembly according to claim 11 .

Assignees

• Asahi Chemical Ind
• Daikin Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Tago Takahiro
• Murakami Tetsuya
• OHTSUKA Kazuhiro

Classifications

• Y02P70/50

  Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M8/1081

  starting from solutions, dispersions or slurries exclusively of polymers · CPC title

• H01M8/1004

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

• C08J2327/16

  Homopolymers or copolymers of vinylidene fluoride · CPC title