Method for activating solid polymer fuel cell
AssigneeAisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorGang Xie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
By using a fuel cell having a membrane electrode assembly having and electrolyte membrane 100 formed by a polymer electrolyte membrane, and an anode 101 and a cathode 102 carrying a catalytic metal and sandwiching electrolyte membrane 100. The anode 101 and the cathode 102 are in electrical connection, and an activation treatment is carried out for opening an active site of catalytic metal of the cathode 102. This provides an activation method of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell which is advantageous to activation and raises cell voltage.
Claims7
An activation method for preparing a polymer electrolyte fuel cell before the fuel cell generates electricity including a membrane electrode assembly that includes an electrolyte membrane formed by a polymer electrolyte membrane, and an anode and a cathode each carrying a respective catalytic metal and sandwiching said electrolyte membrane, wherein
- said anode and said cathode are in electrical connection;
- and
- an activation treatment opens an active site of said catalytic metal of said cathode by supplying gas containing hydrogen to said anode, supplying gas containing oxygen to said cathode, and setting said cathode in an oxygen shortage condition in which an oxygen utilization rate is over 100%,
- wherein the oxygen utilization rate corresponds to a ratio of an oxygen amount actually utilized in power generation to an amount of oxygen supplied to the polymer electrolyte fuel cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.