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AssigneeAsahi Glass Company, Limited
InventorsAtsushi Watakabe, Takeshi Eriguchi
Estimating the term…
A polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising a membrane-form polymer electrolyte, a cathode disposed on one side of the polymer electrolyte, and an anode disposed on the other side of the polymer electrolyte, wherein the cathode comprises a catalyst and an ion exchange resin, and the ion exchange resin is made of a polymer comprising the following segments A and segments B: Segments A: segments made of a polymer having sulfonic acid groups; and Segments B: segments made of a fluoropolymer having substantially no ion exchange groups.
A polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising a membrane-form polymer electrolyte, a cathode disposed on one side of the polymer electrolyte, and an anode disposed on the other side of the polymer electrolyte, wherein the cathode comprises a catalyst and an ion exchange resin, and the ion exchange resin is made of a polymer comprising the following segments A and segments B:
A block polymer comprising the following segments C′ and the following segments D and having a molecular weight of from 5×103 to 5×106:
A block polymer comprising the following segments C′ and the following segments E and having a molecular weight of from 5×103 to 5×106:
A process for producing a polymer, which comprises polymerizing a first monomer group comprising one or more fluoromonomers in the presence of a first radical initiator and an iodine-containing fluoro-compound in a non-aqueous medium or in the absence of any solvent, to prepare a substantially amorphous polymer, and then, polymerizing a second monomer group comprising one or more monomers different from the first monomer group in the presence of the polymer and a second radical initiator in a non-aqueous medium or in the absence of any solvent.
A liquid composition which comprises an organic solvent having an alcoholic hydroxyl group and a block polymer comprising the following segments C″ and the following segments D and having a molecular weight of from 5×103 to 5×106, dissolved or dispersed in the organic solvent:
A liquid composition which comprises an organic solvent having an alcoholic hydroxyl group and a block polymer comprising the following segments C″ and the following segments E and having a molecular weight of from 5×103 to 5×106, dissolved or dispersed in the organic solvent:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Selection of inactive substances as ingredients for active masses, e.g. binders, fillers: binders
Post-polymerisation treatments: removal of residual monomers by physical means
Macromolecular compounds obtained by polymerising monomers on to polymers of halogen containing monomers as defined in group C08F14/00: on to…
Macromolecular compounds obtained by polymerisation on to a macromolecule having groups capable
Term end not estimated
The present invention relates to a block polymer, a process for its production and a liquid composition containing the block polymer, as well as a polymer electrolyte fuel cell having an electrode containing the block polymer.
Attention has been drawn to a hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell as a power generation system which gives substantially no adverse effect to the global environment, since its reaction product is only water in principle. Polymer electrolyte fuel cells were once mounted on space ships in the Gemini Project and the Bio-satellite Project, but the cell output densities at that time were low. Thereafter, alkaline fuel cells having higher performance have been developed, and such alkaline fuel cells have been employed for space crafts including current space shuttles.
Whereas, along with the progress of technology in recent years, attention has been drawn again to polymer electrolyte fuel cells, for the following two reasons. (1) As a polymer electrolyte, a highly conductive membrane has been developed. (2) A catalyst to be used for a gas diffusion electrode layer is supported on carbon, and it is further coated with an ion exchange resin, whereby it has been made possible to obtain an extremely large activity.
In the accompanying drawings:
FIG. 1 shows GPC charts of a TFE/PPVE copolymer and a block polymer prepared in Example 1.
FIG. 2(a) shows a 19F-NMR chart of a TFE/PPVE copolymer prepared in Example 1, and FIG. 2(b) shows a 19F-NMR chart of polymer 1 prepared in Example 1.
Now, the present invention will be described in detail.
In the present invention, the ion exchange resin contained in a cathode (hereinafter referred to as the cathode resin) is preferably one obtained by hydrolyzing a block polymer comprising amorphous segments (hereinafter referred to as segments A′) made of a polymer having fluorosulfonyl groups (—SO2F groups) and amorphous segments B and then converting it to an acid form. Here, both segments A′ and segments B are amorphous, whereby it is easy to form multisegments by iodine transfer polymerization. If they have crystallinity, the iodine transfer polymerization tends to hardly proceed for such a reason that the reactivity of growing radicals deteriorates or a polymer precipitates from the solution. Especially when initially polymerized segments have crystallinity, it tends to be difficult to introduce the subsequently polymerized segments. Accordingly, they are preferably amorphous.
Further, an electrode for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell is formed usually by coating with a coating fluid prepared by dispersing a catalyst in a liquid having an ion exchange resin dissolved or dispersed in a solvent. If segments A′ or segments B in the cathode resin in the present invention have crystallinity, the solubility or dispersibility of the resin in a solvent deteriorates, whereby it tends to be difficult to obtain an electrode having the ion exchange resin uniformly distributed, and the reactivity of the electrode tends to be low.