Liquid composition, process for its production, and process for producing membrane-electrode assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9331354-B2
Application number	US-201313948288-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 23, 2013
Priority date	Jun 22, 2004
Publication date	May 3, 2016
Grant date	May 3, 2016

Abstract

An electrolyte membrane is prepared from a liquid composition comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of trivalent cerium, tetravalent cerium, bivalent manganese and trivalent manganese; and a polymer with a cation-exchange group. The liquid composition is preferably one containing water, a carbonate of cerium or manganese, and a polymer with a cation-exchange group, and a cast film thereof is used as an electrolyte membrane to prepare a membrane-electrode assembly. The present invention successfully provides a membrane-electrode assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells being capable of generating the electric power in high energy efficiency, having high power generation performance regardless of the dew point of the feed gas, and being capable of stably generating the electric power over a long period of time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process for producing a liquid composition comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of trivalent cerium, tetravalent cerium, bivalent manganese and trivalent manganese; and a polymer having a cation-exchange group,
which comprises dissolving or dispersing the polymer having the cation-exchange group in a liquid containing water and then dissolving therein at least one member selected from the group consisting of a cerium carbonate and a manganese carbonate.

2. The process for producing a liquid composition according to claim 1 , wherein the cation-exchange group is sulfonic acid group.

3. The process for producing a liquid composition according to claim 2 , wherein the cerium ion is contained in an amount of from 0.3 to 30 mol% relative to the molarity of —SO 3 − in the polymer, in the liquid composition.

4. The process for producing a liquid composition according to claim 2 , wherein the manganese ion is contained in an amount of from 0.5 to 45 mol% relative to the molarity of —SO 3 − in the polymer, in the liquid composition.

5. A process for producing a liquid composition comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of trivalent cerium, tetravalent cerium, bivalent manganese and trivalent manganese; and a polymer having a cation-exchange group,
which comprises dissolving or dispersing the polymer having the cation-exchange group in a liquid containing water and then dissolving therein at least one member selected from the group consisting of a water-soluble cerium salt and a water-soluble manganese salt.

6. The process for producing a liquid composition according to claim 5 , wherein the cation-exchange group is sulfonic acid group.

7. The process for producing a liquid composition according to claim 6 , wherein the cerium ion is contained in an amount of from 0.3 to 30 mol% relative to the molarity of —SO 3 − in the polymer, in the liquid composition.

8. The process for producing a liquid composition according to claim 6 , wherein the manganese ion is contained in an amount of from 0.5 to 45 mol% relative to the molarity of —SO 3 − in the polymer, in the liquid composition.

Assignees

• Asahi Glass Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kawazoe Hisao
• Endoh Eiji
• Nakagawa Hideki
• Terazono Shinji

Classifications

• B01D2325/42

  Ion-exchange membranes · CPC title

• H01M8/1023

  having only carbon, e.g. polyarylenes, polystyrenes or polybutadiene-styrenes · CPC title

• C08J3/212

  and solid additives · CPC title

• H01M4/9016

  Oxides, hydroxides or oxygenated metallic salts · CPC title

• H01M8/1051

  Non-ion-conducting additives, e.g. stabilisers, SiO2 or ZrO2 · CPC title