Fuel cell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8932784-B2
Application number	US-7819408-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 27, 2008
Priority date	Mar 27, 2007
Publication date	Jan 13, 2015
Grant date	Jan 13, 2015

Abstract

A fuel cell includes a plate-like cell, a separator on one side of the plate-like cell, and a separator on the other side of the plate-like cell. The plate-like cell includes a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, an anode, and a cathode. The anode has a stacked body composed of a catalyst layer and a gas diffusion layer. The cathode has a stacked body composed of a catalyst layer and a gas diffusion layer. The catalyst layer contains a porous carbon material formed with micro pores, which functions as an electric double layer, and an ion-exchange resin. At least part of the porous carbon material supports a catalytic metal such as platinum. The porous carbon material to be used is preferably a carbide-derived carbon. The carbide-derived carbon preferably has micro pores of 1 nm or less.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fuel cell, including:
an electrolyte membrane;
an anode disposed on one side of said electrolyte membrane; and
a cathode disposed on the other side of said electrolyte membrane, wherein
said cathode contains a porous carbon material formed with micro pores which function as an electric double layer and derived from a carbide, a reaction gas flowing along the surface of the cathode,
perfluoro-organic acid is mixed with the porous carbon material, and
a content of the porous carbon material in said cathode on a downstream side of a flow of the reaction gas along the surface of the cathode is larger than that of the porous carbon material in said cathode on an upstream side thereof, and
the carbide is selected from a group consisting of molybdenum carbide and tungsten carbide.

2. The fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the capacity of the electric double layer of the porous carbon material is 110 F/g or more.

3. The fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the capacity of the electric double layer of the porous carbon material is 50 mF/cm 2 or more in comparison with an electrode area.

4. The fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein a proton-electron mixed conductor is mixed with the porous carbon material.

5. The fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the porous carbon material supports a material selected from a group consisting of catalytic metal, catalytic metal oxide, and catalytic metal carbide.

6. The fuel cell according to claim 2 , wherein the porous carbon material supports a material selected from a group consisting of catalytic metal, catalytic metal oxide, and catalytic metal carbide.

7. The fuel cell according to claim 3 , wherein the porous carbon material supports a material selected from a group consisting of catalytic metal, catalytic metal oxide, and catalytic metal carbide.

8. The fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the cathode includes carbon particles for supporting a catalytic material.

9. The fuel cell according to claim 8 , wherein the carbon particles are selected from the group consisting of acetylene black, ketjen black, carbon nanotube, and carbon nano-onion.

10. The fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein a perfluoro-organic acid which is lower in molecular weight than perfluorocarbon polymer is mixed with the porous carbon material.

Assignees

• Matsuoka Kouji
• Sakamoto Shigeru
• Jx Nippon Oil & Energy Corp

Inventors

• Matsuoka Kouji
• Sakamoto Shigeru

Classifications

• H01M4/8642

  Gradient in composition · CPC title

• H01M4/926

  on carbon or graphite · CPC title

• H01M4/90

  Selection of catalytic material · CPC title

• H01M8/1206

  Electricity · mapped topic

• Y02E60/521

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic