Fuel cell
AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsTakaaki Shikano, Masaru Oda, Yoshihito Kimura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fuel cell includes: an electrolyte membrane-electrode structure in which electrodes are provided on both surfaces of an electrolyte membrane and a frame member is joined to the outer peripheral portion of the electrolyte membrane; and a pair of separators for sandwiching the electrolyte membrane-electrode structure, wherein an overlapping portion of the outer peripheral portion of the electrode and the inner peripheral portion of the frame member is disposed in a flow field section in which flow field grooves for allowing a reactant gas to flow along the electrode surface of the electrolyte membrane-electrode structure are formed, and is disposed so as not to extend into buffers between the flow field section and passages.
Claims7
A fuel cell comprising:
- a membrane electrode assembly having a pair of electrodes provided on both sides of an electrolyte membrane and a frame member joined to an outer peripheral portion of the electrolyte membrane;
- a pair of separators for sandwiching the membrane electrode assembly,
- a flow field section including a plurality of ridges each projecting, in a shape of a line, from one of the separators toward a power generation area of the membrane electrode assembly, and a plurality of flow field grooves formed between the ridges to allow a reactant gas to flow along an electrode surface of one of the electrodes of the membrane electrode assembly;
- a passage penetrating the separators in a thickness direction for supplying or discharging the reactant gas;
- and
- a buffer provided between the passage and the flow field section for guiding the reactant gas between the passage and the flow field section, wherein
- at least one of the electrodes has an outer end that faces the passage and the at least one of the electrodes is so arranged that the outer end is positioned within the flow field section, and
- an outer peripheral portion of the at least one of the electrodes including the outer end that faces the passage overlaps an inner peripheral portion of the frame member at an overlapping portion positioned within the flow field section, without extending beyond a boundary between the buffer and the flow field section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.