A method for producing a membrane electrode comprises a thermal transfer printing step, a thermal combining step, a carbon paper attaching step and a hot-pressing step. The invention realizes the continuous automatic production of the membrane electrode and improves the production efficiency and the quality of the membrane electrode.

Disclosed are anode electrode structures for microbial fuel cell (MFC) devices, systems and methods for treating wastewater and generating electrical energy through a bioelectrochemical waste-to-energy conversion process. In some aspects, an anode electrode includes a conductive core and a plurality of sheets of conductive textile material wound around the conductive core. In some aspects, the anode electrode is produced by cutting sheets of a conductive textile material to form a stem and a plurality of branches connected to the stem. The conductive textile material is pretreated to enhance the surface area, hydrophilicity, microbial attachment, and/or electrochemical activity of the conductive textile material. The sheets are stacked together and wound around a conductive core to produce the anode electrode. In implementations, the anode electrode can be used to transfer electrons removed from wastewater surrounding the branched electrode via an oxidation reaction on the electrode surface within the an MFC device.

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a substrate for a fuel cell and an apparatus for manufacturing an electrode for a fuel cell, which can make it possible to reduce loss of a catalyst and loss of an electrolyte membrane, improve a processing speed, and precisely form a pattern shape of an electrode although the electrode is continuously formed on a substrate when applying catalyst slurry on the substrate comprising a release film or the electrolyte membrane and thus forming the electrode.

A method for forming a melamine-modified electrode that includes providing a metal based electrode and patterning a surface of the metal-based electrode by contacting the electrode with a melamine solution to form a patterned metal-based electrode. The patterned metal-based electrode includes metal sites blocked with melamine molecules and metal sites which are not blocked such that the metal-based electrode selectively adsorbs O.sub.2 instead of at least one of sulfate, phosphate, or sulphonate. A range of 20% to 40% of the metal sites are blocked with melamine molecules.

A method for forming a melamine-modified electrode that includes providing a metal based electrode and patterning a surface of the metal-based electrode by contacting the electrode with a melamine solution to form a patterned metal-based electrode. The patterned metal-based electrode includes metal sites blocked with melamine molecules and metal sites which are not blocked such that the metal-based electrode selectively adsorbs O.sub.2 instead of at least one of sulfate, phosphate, or sulphonate. A range of 20% to 40% of the metal sites are blocked with melamine molecules.

A method and a device for producing bipolar plates for fuel cells. A bipolar plate is formed by joining an anode plate to a cathode plate, wherein the anode plate and the cathode plate are formed by forming a substrate plate. In order to provide a cost-effective and automated method, it is proposed that a plate already provided with a reactive coating or catalyst coating, which is transported, automatically driven, via a transport device from the forming device to the joining device, is used as substrate plate.

A layered cathode structure for a molten carbonate fuel cell is provided, along with methods of forming a layered cathode and operating a fuel cell including a layered cathode. The layered cathode can include at least a first cathode layer and a second cathode layer. The first cathode layer can correspond to a layer that is adjacent to the molten carbonate electrolyte during operation, while the second cathode layer can correspond to a layer that is adjacent to the cathode collector of the fuel cell. The first cathode layer can be formed by sintering a layer that includes a conventional precursor material for forming a cathode, such as nickel particles. The second cathode layer can be formed by sintering a layer that includes a mixture of particles of a conventional precursor material and 1.0 vol % to 30 vol % of particles of a lithium pore-forming compound. The resulting layered cathode structure can have an increased pore size adjacent to the cathode collector to facilitate diffusion of CO.sub.2 into the electrolyte interface, while also having a smaller pore size adjacent to the electrolyte to allow for improved electrical contact and/or reduced polarization at the interface between the electrolyte and the cathode.

A method and apparatus are described for forming a multilayer assembly. The method includes adhering first and second catalyst layers to opposed sides of a polymer membrane. At least one of the first catalyst layer, the second catalyst layer, and the polymer membrane is formed by filament extension atomization of a fluid material to form atomized droplets that are sprayed to form the respective membrane or layer.

Provided are an electrode catalyst layer for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, which is capable of improving drainage property and gas diffusion properties and capable of high output, and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell provided with the same. An electrode catalyst layer (2, 3) bonded to a polymer electrolyte membrane (1) includes a catalyst (13), carbon particles (14), a polymer electrolyte (15) and fibrous material (16), in which the electrode catalyst layer (2,3) has a density falling within a range of 500 mg/cm.sup.3 to 900 mg/cm.sup.3, or has a density falling within a range of 400 mg/cm.sup.3 to 1000 mg/cm.sup.3, and the mass of the polymer electrolyte (15) falls within a range of 10 mass % to 200 mass % with respect to the total mass of the carbon particles (14) and the fibrous material (16).

A proton conductor contains a metal oxide that has a perovskite structure and that is represented by formula (1): A.sub.xB.sub.1-yM.sub.yO.sub.3-δ, where an element A is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Ba, Ca, and Sr, an element B is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Ce and Zr, an element M is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Y, Yb, Er, Ho, Tm, Gd, In, and Sc, δ indicates an oxygen deficiency amount, and 0.95≤x≤1 and 0<y≤0.5 are satisfied.