An object of the present invention is to provide a nonwoven carbon fiber fabric suitable as a gas diffusion electrode, which achieves good water discharge performance and maintains high gas diffusibility even when electricity is generated in humid conditions. The present invention provides a nonwoven carbon fiber fabric which has ridges on at least one surface thereof and which is provided with a water repellent, the ridges having a pitch that is less than 500 μm.

A gas diffusion electrode is provided that enables the achievement of a fuel cell which has high drainage performance and maintains good power generation performance, while exhibiting high power generation performance particularly at a low temperature (40° C.), if used in the fuel cell. The gas diffusion electrode includes a microporous layer on at least one surface of a conductive porous substrate, wherein the microporous layer has a fluorine compound region having a length of 3-10 μm and a void having a length of 3-10 μm.

A method of treating a carbon substrate, includes the successive steps of impregnating the carbon substrate with an aqueous solution containing an amorphous fluorinated copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene and of perfluoromethoxy dioxole, drying the carbon substrate at a pressure lower than the atmospheric pressure, and obtaining a carbon substrate impregnated with a fluorinated copolymer. Such a carbon substrate may be used as a gas diffusion layer in a fuel cell.

A porous carbon sheet includes a carbon fiber and a binding material, wherein when in a measured surface depth distribution, a ratio of an area of a portion having a depth of 20 μm or less in a measured area of one surface is a surface layer area ratio X, and a ratio of an area of a portion having a depth of 20 μm or less in a measured area of another surface is a surface layer area ratio Y, the surface layer area ratio X is larger than the surface layer area ratio Y, and a difference between the surface layer area ratios is 3% or more and 12% or less.

The present invention is directed to an anode including bacteria, a polymer, and a conductive material, wherein the bacteria, the polymer and the conductive material are deposited on at least one surface of the anode. Further provided is a microbial electrochemical system comprising the herein disclosed anode, and methods of using the same, such as for treating wastewater, hydrogen production, or generating electricity.

A gas diffusion layer comprises a carbon sheet and a microporous layer disposed on at least one surface of the carbon sheet, and meeting the requirement “C is equal to or greater than 0”, wherein: C, referred to as “index for simultaneous realization of a required in-plane oxygen permeation coefficient and electrical resistance”, is calculated by subtracting the product of B multiplied by 60 from A and adding 310 to the difference, A, is the rate of oxygen permeation in an in-plane direction in a gas diffusion layer that occurs when a pressure of 0.5 MPa is applied in the through-plane direction to a surface of the gas diffusion layer to compress an arbitrarily selected region having a width of 10 mm and a depth of 3 mm in the gas diffusion layer, and B is the “electrical resistance” that occurs when the gas diffusion layer is compressed by applying a pressure of 2 MPa in the through-plane direction.

A fuel cell module includes an electrode membrane assembly and a pair of separators. The electrode membrane assembly includes an electrode portion and a pair of gas diffusion layers. The electrode portion includes a polymer electrolyte membrane, an anode electrode formed on a first surface of the polymer electrolyte membrane, and a cathode electrode formed on a second surface of the polymer electrolyte membrane. One of the pair of gas diffusion layers is in contact with an anode surface of the electrode portion at which the anode electrode is disposed, and the other is in contact with a cathode surface of the electrode portion at which the cathode electrode is disposed. The separators sandwich the electrode membrane assembly from respective the anode surface and the cathode surface. The electrode membrane assembly and each separator are adhered to each other by a plurality of resin portions made of a resin which at least partially contains fibers. At least a part of each gas diffusion layer is impregnated with the resin.

The invention relates to a method for producing a bipolar plate (10) for a fuel cell (1), comprising a plate body (11) for separating the fuel cell (1) from a neighbouring fuel cell (1) or a housing, wherein the plate body (11) has a flow field structure (1b) for introducing the reactants into the fuel cell (1). To that end, according to the invention, the method comprises the following steps: providing a mass (D1) made of electrically conductive particles and a polymer-based adhesive; applying the provided mass (D1) to the plate body (11) of the bipolar plate (10) in the form of the flow field structure (1b); pyrolising the applied mass (D1) which remains on the plate body (11) of the bipolar plate (10) as a shaping element in the form of the flow field structure (1b) and which is connected to said plate body.

The invention relates to a method for producing a bipolar plate (10) for a fuel cell (1), comprising a plate body (11) for separating the fuel cell (1) from a neighbouring fuel cell (1) or a housing, wherein the plate body (11) has a flow field structure (1b) for introducing the reactants into the fuel cell (1). To that end, according to the invention, the method comprises the following steps: providing a mass (D1) made of electrically conductive particles and a polymer-based adhesive; applying the provided mass (D1) to the plate body (11) of the bipolar plate (10) in the form of the flow field structure (1b); pyrolising the applied mass (D1) which remains on the plate body (11) of the bipolar plate (10) as a shaping element in the form of the flow field structure (1b) and which is connected to said plate body.

Membrane electrode assembly for PEM fuel cells, including a proton exchange membrane, two catalyst layers (anode and cathode catalyst layer), and two gas diffusion layers, the anodic one of which is based on a carbon fiber paper and is provided with a microporous layer including graphite, carbon nanotubes or carbon nanofibers, and PTFE, whereas the cathodic gas diffusion layer is based on a carbon fiber structure and is provided with a microporous layer based on carbon black, carbon nanotubes and/or carbon nanofibers, and PTFE.