Polymer electrolyte fuel cell and fuel cell sealing member for the same
AssigneePanasonic Corporation
InventorsYasushi Sugawara, Takayuki Urata, Junji Morita, Soichi Shibata, Takahiro Umeda
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To provide a polymer electrolyte fuel cell in which a reaction gas can be utilized efficiently for an electrode reaction even when a gap is formed between an anode-side sealing member and the end face of an anode and between a cathode-side sealing member and the end face of a cathode, and sufficient power generation performance can be ensured with a simple constitution. At least one of the anode-side sealing member and the cathode-side sealing member of the fuel cell includes an annular body, and at least one deformable protruding portion provided on the inner surface of the annular body.
Claims19
A polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising:
- a membrane electrode assembly including a polymer electrolyte membrane having a hydrogen ion conductivity, and an anode and a cathode that sandwich said polymer electrolyte membrane;
- an anode-side separator plate having a gas channel for supplying a fuel gas to said anode, and a cathode-side separator plate having a gas channel for supplying an oxidant gas to said cathode;
- an anode-side sealing member for maintaining air-tightness between said anode and said anode-side separator plate disposed between the outer periphery of said membrane electrode assembly and the side face of said anode-side separator plate facing said membrane electrode assembly;
- and
- a cathode-side sealing member for maintaining air-tightness between said cathode and said cathode-side separator plate disposed between the outer periphery of said membrane electrode assembly and the side face of said cathode-side separator plate facing said membrane electrode assembly,
- wherein at least one of said anode-side sealing member and said cathode-side sealing member comprises:
- an annular body disposed along said outer periphery of said membrane electrode assembly;
- and at least one deformable protruding portion provided on the inner surface of said annular body,
- wherein a gap is formed between said annular body and said membrane electrode assembly, and said protruding portion is located in said gap, and
- wherein said protruding portion is provided on said inner surface such that the length direction of said protruding portion and the surface direction of said inner surface intersect with each other.
(canceled)
(canceled)
A sealing member for a fuel cell comprising:
- an annular body;
- and at least one deformable protruding portion provided on the inner surface of said annular body,
- wherein said protruding portion is provided on said inner surface such that the length direction of said protruding portion and the surface direction of said inner surface intersect with each other.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.