No abstract

The world's first highly durable PFSA membrane and MEA for PEMFC have been developed, which can operate for more than 6,000 hours at 120ºC and 50% relative humidity (RH). The MEA is comprised of a newly invented composite polymer (NPC polymer), which has exceptional chemical stability against degradation caused by the hydroxyl radical even at 120ºC. This achievement has opened up a new era of operating PEMFC in the temperature range of near freezing to120ºC under low and high humidity conditions for an extended period of time.

The degradation mechanism of the perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) membrane was investigated by a new accelerated test method, in which the membrane was exposed to H2O2 gas. It was clarified that the degradation of the PFSA polymer proceeds via a novel degradation mechanism. Subsequently, the influence of Pt particles, which deposited in the membrane during accelerated tests, on the degradation of the membrane was investigated. It was concluded that the Pt particles will not contribute to the degradation of the membrane.

No abstract

Nitrogen was photosynthetically reduced to NH3 with irradiated substoichiometric tungsten oxides and tungsten trioxide, W03. The reaction occurred with moist N2 above W03 or substoichiometric W03_x or with substoichiometric tungsten oxide dispersions in N2-saturated aqueous solutions. A decrease in the rate of NH3 formation at W03 with time was attributed to tungsten bronze formation. The yields of NH3 with W03_x and W02 96 were roughly proportional to time and were about 0.1 Mg/h. Ammonia production for dispersions of WO^i n an aqueous phase occurred by a thermal, rather than a photochemical, reaction.