Method for activating fuel cell
AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
InventorsEiichi Yasumoto, Hisaaki Gyoten, Kazuhito Hatoh, Kazufumi Nishida, Teruhisa Kanbara
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Abstract
A method for activating a polymer electrolyte type fuel cell comprising at least one unit cell which is configured by including a proton conductive polymer electrolyte, an electrode layer having a catalytic activity arranged on the both faces of said polymer electrolyte membrane and a gas-supplying path is disclosed. This method comprises at least one of the step (a) of enhancing the catalytic activity of said electrode and the step (b) of giving a wetting condition to said polymer electrolyte. According to the present invention, it is possible to readily activate the fuel cell and to cause the same to demonstrate a high cell performance.
Claims8
A method for activating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising at least one unit cell which is configured by including a proton conductive polymer electrolyte, an electrode layer having a catalytic activity arranged on the both faces of said polymer electrolyte and a gas-supplying path;
- comprising at least one of step (a) of enhancing the catalytic activity of said electrode and step (b) of giving a wetting condition to said polymer electrolyte;
- and
- wherein catalytic activity of said electrode is enhanced by compulsively decreasing the output voltage of said polymer electrolyte fuel cell in said step (a).
A method for activating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising at least one unit cell which is configured by including a proton conductive polymer electrolyte, an electrode layer having a catalytic activity arranged on the both faces of said polymer electrolyte and a gas-supplying path;
- comprising at least one of step (a) of enhancing the catalytic activity of said electrode and step (b) of giving a wetting condition to said polymer electrolyte;
- and
- wherein a wetting condition to said polymer electrolyte is given by immersing and boiling said polymer electrolyte fuel cell in a deionized water or a weakly acidic aqueous solution and boiling in said step (b).
A method for activating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising at least one unit cell which is configured by including a proton conductive polymer electrolyte, an electrode layer having a catalytic activity arranged on the both faces of said polymer electrolyte and a gas-supplying path;
- comprising at least one of step (a) of enhancing the catalytic activity of said electrode and step (b) of giving a wetting condition to said polymer electrolyte;
- and
- wherein a wetting condition to said polymer electrolyte is given by introducing a deionized water or a weakly acidic aqueous solution having a temperature higher than an operating temperature of said polymer electrolyte fuel cell into the gas-supplying path in said step (b).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.