Fuel cell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9299990-B2
Application number	US-98832909-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2009
Priority date	Dec 1, 2008
Publication date	Mar 29, 2016
Grant date	Mar 29, 2016

Abstract

Through enhancement of productivity in a gas flow-path formation member, rising of production cost and deterioration of productivity of a cell that contains the gas flow-path formation member in cell components of the cell are prevented.
A porous board 32 as a gas flow-path formation member that is individually formed from a separator is a molded piece containing carbon powder as raw materials, whereby possibilities of corrosion in an inner cell environment are naturally lower than the metallic-made. Further, since necessary conductivities are securable by carbon itself, additional treatments such as gilding for improvement of conductivity are not required. Moreover, because a plurality of openings of the porous board 32 are regularly arranged, forming either a tortoise-shell formed mesh 22 or lozenge-formed mesh 26 , the porous board 32 can be easily molded with a mold 30 and can be accurately formed with high precision even in mass production. Still further, removal of burrs 34 and expansion of surface roughness are performable to the porous board 32 through an identical process following molding.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fuel cell with a cell structure including:
a separator; and
a gas flow-path formation member individually provided from the separator, the gas flow-path formation member being arranged within a cell component including the separator, wherein the gas flow-path formation member is a molded piece and contains carbon powder and binder as raw materials, the gas flow-path formation member being a porous board having a plurality of openings that are regularly arranged at least in a gas flow direction as well as in a direction orthogonally crossing the gas flow direction so as to prevent components of a gasket of the fuel cell from traveling along the plurality of openings of the gas-flow path formation member and infiltrating an inner area of the fuel cell that contributes to the generation of electricity,
wherein the openings are formed so that an aperture ratio of the openings defined by only a certain region that extends from the most external edges of the gas flow-path formation member slightly towards the center is set to be smaller than other areas, the certain region being definable as a region that entirely surrounds an inner area of the porous board.

2. The fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the gas flow-path formation member includes burrs that are configured to be removed, and wherein surface roughness of the gas flow-path member is configured to be expanded.

3. A fuel cell with a cell structure including: a separator; and a gas flow-path formation member individually provided from the separator, the gas flow-path formation member being arranged within a cell component including the separator, wherein the gas flow-path formation member is a molded piece and contains carbon powder and binder as raw materials, the gas flow-path formation member being a porous board having a plurality of openings that are regularly arranged at least in a gas flow direction as well as in a direction orthogonally crossing the gas flow direction so as to prevent components of a gasket of the fuel cell from traveling along the plurality of openings of the gas-flow path formation member and infiltrating an inner area of the fuel cell that contributes to the generation of electricity,
wherein the openings are formed so that an aperture ratio of the openings defined by only a certain width at a predetermined distance from the most external edges of the gas flow-path formation member is set to be smaller than other areas, the certain width being definable as a width that entirely surrounds an inner area of the porous board.

4. The fuel cell according to claim 3 , wherein the gas flow-path formation member includes burrs that are configured to be removed, and wherein surface roughness of the gas flow-path member is configured to be expanded.

Assignees

• Hasegawa Hajime
• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Hasegawa Hajime

Classifications

• Y02P70/56

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H01M8/0221

  Organic resins; Organic polymers · CPC title

• H01M4/8807 Primary

  Gas diffusion layers · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M8/0213

  Gas-impermeable carbon-containing materials · CPC title