MEMBRANE-ELECTRODE ASSEMBLY, ITS MANUFACTURING METHOD, AND POLYMER ELECTROLYTE FUEL CELL

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a membrane-electrode assembly capable of balancing mobility of a substance with suppression of methanol crossover to achieve excellent battery performance by focusing attention on an electrode base material structure used particularly for an anode structure, and controlling a structure of a porous carbon sheet, hole diameters of through-holes thereof and density of the through-holes; its manufacturing method; and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell. SOLUTION: This membrane-electrode assembly is provided with an anode electrode, an electrolyte membrane and a cathode electrode, and has a hydrocarbon-based polymer coating between the anode electrode and the electrolyte membrane, and another hydrocarbon-based polymer coating between the cathode electrode and the electrolyte membrane. The membrane-electrode assembly is characterized in that each of the anode electrode and the cathode electrode comprises an electrode base material and a catalyst layer; the electrode base material used for the anode electrode is made of a porous carbon sheet; the porous carbon sheet has a plurality of through-holes penetrating the front and back sides of the sheet; the diameter of each through-hole on the porous carbon sheet is 100-400 μm; and the density of the through-holes is 25-500/cm2. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT