JP2003331857A - Method for manufacturing separator for fuel cell - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for manufacturing a separator for an in expensive polymer electrolyte fuel cell having low cost, sufficient mechanical strength, high shock resistance, and high conductivity. <P>SOLUTION: This method for manufacturing the separator for the fuel cell contains (1) a process forming a substrate having a groove-shaped gas passage on one surface with a composition containing conductive carbon and a binder by molding, and (2) a process for forming the separator for the polymer electrolyte fuel cell by applying pulsed voltage to the substrate. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a portable power source,
The present invention relates to a method for producing a polymer electrolyte fuel cell used for a power source for an electric vehicle, a domestic cogeneration system, or the like, specifically, a separator used for a fuel cell or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A fuel cell using a polymer electrolyte produces electric power and heat by electrochemically reacting a fuel gas containing hydrogen and an oxidant gas containing oxygen such as air. It is generated at the same time. The method for producing an example of this fuel cell is as follows. First, a catalytic reaction layer containing carbon powder carrying a platinum-based metal catalyst as a main component is formed on both surfaces of a polymer electrolyte membrane that selectively transports hydrogen ions. Next, on the outer surface of this catalytic reaction layer,
A diffusion layer made of carbon paper or the like having both gas permeability and electronic conductivity is formed.
The diffusion layer and the catalytic reaction layer are combined to form an electrode.

Next, in order to prevent the supplied fuel gas and oxidant gas from leaking to the outside or mixing these gases with each other, a polymer electrolyte membrane is sandwiched around the electrodes to form a gas sealing material or gasket. And so on. This sealing material or gasket is integrally assembled with the electrode and the polymer electrolyte membrane in advance. The combination of this electrode and the polymer electrolyte membrane is used as an electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly (ME
Call A). Outside the MEA, a plate-shaped conductive separator is provided for mechanically fixing the MEA and electrically connecting adjacent MEAs in series with each other.

In the portion of the separator that contacts the MEA,
A reaction gas is supplied to the electrode surface to form a gas flow path for carrying away the generated gas or the surplus gas. The gas flow path may be provided separately from the separator, but generally, a groove is provided on the surface of the separator to form the gas flow path. These ME
After alternately stacking A and the separator and stacking 10 to 200 single cells, the obtained stacked body was sandwiched between end plates through a current collector and an insulating plate, and both ends were fixed with fastening bolts. ,
Obtain a laminated battery.

The separator used in such a polymer electrolyte fuel cell has high conductivity, high gas-tightness with respect to the fuel gas, and high reaction with hydrogen / oxygen redox. It must have corrosion resistance, that is, acid resistance. For these reasons, conventional separators have a gas flow path formed by cutting on the surface of a glassy carbon plate, or an expanded graphite powder is put together with a binder in a press die having a gas flow path groove, and then pressed. ,
It was produced by heating and firing.

In recent years, attempts have been made to use a metal plate such as stainless steel in place of the conventionally used carbon material. Since the metal plate is exposed to an oxidizing atmosphere at a high temperature, the separator using the metal plate corrodes or dissolves when used for a long period of time. When the metal plate corrodes, the electric resistance of the corroded portion increases, and the output of the battery decreases. When the metal plate is dissolved, the dissolved metal ions diffuse into the polymer electrolyte and are trapped at the ion exchange sites of the polymer electrolyte, resulting in a decrease in the ion conductivity of the polymer electrolyte itself. In order to avoid such deterioration, the surface of the metal plate is also plated with gold having a certain thickness.

Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-182630, a technique of preparing a composition by mixing a powdery carbon filler, a fibrous filler and a binder, and molding the composition to prepare a separator. Is disclosed. According to this technique, a conductive separator having improved material strength can be obtained. In the method of making the separator by cutting the glassy carbon plate described above, the material cost of the glassy carbon plate itself is high, and it is difficult to reduce the cost for cutting the glassy carbon plate. Further, in the method of producing a metal plate separator plated with gold, there is a problem in the cost of gold plating.

Further, in the method of producing a separator by pressing expansive graphite, there is a problem in the mechanical strength of the material, and especially when it is adopted in a fuel cell used as a power source of an electric vehicle, The separator sometimes cracked due to vibration or shock. Furthermore, the separator obtained by molding the composition in which the carbon filler and the binder are mixed is conductive to the separator using the conventional glassy carbon material or the metal material because the resin forming the binder is an insulator. Had a problem that

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the separator obtained by the conventional manufacturing method as described above. More specifically, the object of the present invention is low cost, sufficient mechanical strength,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for producing a separator for polymer electrolyte fuel cells having impact resistance and conductivity.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides (1) a groove-like gas flow channel on one surface by molding using a composition containing conductive carbon and a binder. Of a separator for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, comprising: (2) applying a pulsed voltage to the base material to obtain a separator for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell. A manufacturing method is provided.

In the above-mentioned method for producing a separator, the steps (1) and (2) may be carried out simultaneously. Further, the composition may further contain a conductive filler in addition to the conductive carbon. Moreover, it is preferable that the second conductive filler is made of at least one selected from the group consisting of metals, conductive inorganic carbides, conductive inorganic nitrides, and conductive inorganic oxides.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A method for producing a fuel cell separator according to the present invention comprises: (1) a substrate having a groove-shaped gas flow channel on one surface by molding using a composition containing conductive carbon and a binder. And (2) applying a pulsed voltage to the base material to obtain a fuel cell separator. Among them, the greatest feature of the present invention is that a conductive separator, which is a component of a fuel cell, is applied to a substrate obtained by molding a composition containing a binder and conductive carbon by applying a pulsed voltage. The point is to obtain (step (2) above).

According to the method of manufacturing a separator according to the present invention as described above, a base material of a conductive separator having a gas flow path or the like is formed by molding, and a pulsed voltage is applied to the base material to form the separator. The insulating layer of the binder existing around the conductive carbon constituting the substrate is destroyed by the electric energy, and the resin component of the binder is carbonized. The carbonization of this resin component reduces the electric resistance of the insulating layer of the binder existing between the conductive carbons, and improves the electric conductivity of the obtained separator.

Therefore, according to the present invention, by using the molding step (1), it is possible to omit the cutting work such as the gas flow passage which is required when the conventional separator is manufactured, and the productivity is improved. Can be improved. Further, by using the voltage applying step (2), high electrical conductivity can be imparted to the obtained separator.

It is also possible to perform the molding step (1) and the voltage application step (2) at the same time. That is,
In the present invention, the separator may be produced by applying a pulsed voltage during the process of forming the separator.
If two steps are performed at the same time, it is effective because the manufacturing speed can be improved and the process itself can be made efficient.

Here, the method of manufacturing the fuel cell separator according to the present invention will be briefly described step by step. First, in the step (1), a base material having a groove-shaped gas flow channel on one surface is obtained by molding using a composition containing conductive carbon and a binder. The term "base material" as used herein refers to a material that can be used as it is as a conductive separator in the conventional technique. In the present invention, since the base material becomes a fuel cell separator by applying a voltage in the step (2), it is referred to as a base material which is a precursor of the separator here.

The conductive carbon and the binder contained in the composition constituting the substrate may be the same as conventional ones. As the conductive carbon, there is no problem as long as it has conductivity, for example, natural graphite, artificial graphite, expanded graphite, mesophase carbon, acetylene black, Ketjen black, carbon black and glassy carbon and the like. You can
It is also possible to use each of these alone or in an appropriate combination as long as the effects of the present invention are not impaired.

As the resin constituting the binder, for example, polyethylene, polystyrene, polypropylene, methacrylic resin, polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, polyamide, polyimide, polyvinyl alcohol, polyphenylene sulfide, polyether ketone, polyether imide, fluororesin, etc. , Ester resins, liquid crystal polymers, aromatic polyesters, polyacetals, polyphenylene ethers, phenolic resins, urea resins, melamine resins, unsaturated polyester resins, diallyl phthalate resins and epoxy resins, and the like, respectively, or the present invention It is also possible to use them in an appropriate combination as long as the effect of the above is not impaired.

The composition may contain a conductive filler in addition to the conductive carbon. By adding such a conductive filler, it is possible to further improve the conductivity of the obtained fuel cell separator.
More specifically, when a pulsed voltage is applied, the conductive filler is melted or evaporated by electric energy, and then the conductive filler is re-aggregated to form an electric conduction network, which improves the electric conductivity. Can be expected.
Therefore, it is preferable that the conductive filler can be melted or evaporated in the voltage applying step (2).

Examples of the conductive filler include at least one selected from the group consisting of metals, conductive inorganic carbides, conductive inorganic nitrides and conductive inorganic oxides. Examples of the metal include
Examples thereof include silver, copper, aluminum, iron, nickel, lead, tin, titanium, zinc, tungsten, cobalt, molybdenum, and alloys thereof.

Examples of the electrically conductive inorganic carbides include TiC and n-type SiC. Further, examples of the conductive inorganic nitride include TiN and TiAlN, and examples of the conductive inorganic oxide include In-doped tin oxide and lead oxide. In order to mold a composition containing the above components to obtain a base material, a molding method conventionally used for molding a separator may be used.

Next, a pulsed voltage is applied to the base material obtained in the molding step (1) to obtain a fuel cell separator. As a method for applying a pulsed voltage to the substrate, a pulsed voltage is applied in the thickness direction from the front surface to the back surface of the plate-shaped substrate, that is, in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the plate-shaped substrate. Good. The application time is preferably 5 to 20 minutes, and the intensity of the pulsed voltage may be 30 to 500V. Further, the cycle may be 30 Hz to 1 kHz. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these.

[0023]

Examples << Example 1 and Comparative Example 1 >> In this example, first, an electrolyte membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was produced. A schematic vertical sectional view of this MEA is shown in FIG. First,
Platinum particles having an average particle size of about 30Å were supported on acetylene black powder to obtain catalyst powder (supporting 25 wt% platinum). A dispersion obtained by dispersing the powder of perfluorocarbon sulfonic acid in ethyl alcohol was mixed with the dispersion obtained by dispersing the catalyst powder in isopropanol to obtain a catalyst paste.

Further, the carbon paper forming the gas diffusion layer 11 which is the support of the electrode 13 was subjected to a water repellent treatment. 8c
After impregnating a carbon nonwoven fabric (TGP-H-120 manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.) having dimensions of m × 10 cm × 360 μm with an aqueous dispersion containing a fluororesin (Neoflon ND1 manufactured by Daikin Industries, Ltd.) , Dried,
Then, by heating at 400 ° C. for 30 minutes, the carbon nonwoven fabric, that is, the gas diffusion layer 11 was provided with water repellency.

The catalyst layer 12 was formed on one surface of the obtained water-repellent gas diffusion layer 11 by applying the catalyst paste by the screen printing method. At this time, a part of the catalyst layer 12 was buried in the gas diffusion layer 11. The catalyst layer 12 thus prepared and the gas diffusion layer 11 were combined to form the electrode 13. The amount of platinum contained in the obtained electrode 13 was 0.5 mg / cm.
² , 1.2 mg of perfluorocarbon sulfonic acid
It was adjusted to be / cm ² .

Then, the catalyst layer 12 is formed on both sides of the hydrogen ion conductive polymer electrolyte membrane 14 having outer dimensions of 10 cm × 20 cm.
A pair of electrodes 13 are arranged so as to be in contact with the electrolyte membrane 14 and joined by hot pressing to form an electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly (M
EA) 15 was obtained. Here, as the hydrogen ion conductive polymer electrolyte membrane 14, a thin film obtained by molding perfluorocarbon sulfonic acid to a thickness of 50 μm was used.

On the other hand, a fuel cell separator was manufactured by the manufacturing method according to the present invention. 30 g of polyphenylene sulfide, which is a resin constituting the binder, 65 g of conductive carbon particles having an average particle size of 50 to 200 μm, and 5 g of carbon black having an average particle size of 30 nm to 100 nm,
The kneaded material was sufficiently kneaded while heating, and the obtained kneaded material was molded to prepare separator pellets. The pellets were put into an injection molding machine and injection-molded into a predetermined mold to prepare a base material having a groove-shaped gas flow path which is a precursor of the separator. At this time, the injection pressure is 1600k
The molding temperature was gf / cm ² , the mold temperature was 150 ° C., and the molding time was 20 seconds (molding step (1)).

It is general to use carbon tool steel (SK material) or the like as a material for forming the mold from the viewpoint of forming tact and strength, but the material for forming the separator used in this embodiment has high heat resistance. Since it has conductivity, the curing rate was high and there was a possibility that defective molding might occur. Therefore, a material having a low thermal conductivity was applied as a material for forming the mold to ensure moldability. Specifically, SUS630 was used.

Next, in the voltage applying step (2), the base material obtained by molding as described above is processed by a discharge plasma sintering machine (DR.SINTER SP manufactured by Sumitomo Coal Mining Co., Ltd.).
S-7.40), and ON-OFF DC pulse energization was performed for 5 minutes. Pressurization pressure at this time is 30 kgf
/ Cm ² , voltage was 50 V, and pulse period was 60 Hz. Thus, a fuel cell separator was produced by the production method according to the present invention.

A front view of the fuel cell separator manufactured by the above method is shown in FIG. 2, and a rear view thereof is shown in FIG. Figure 2
As shown in 3 and 3, groove-shaped gas passages are formed on the front surface and the back surface of the obtained fuel cell separator. The size of the separator is 10 cm x 20 cm x 2 mm
And The dimensions of the groove portions 21 and 31 forming the gas flow passage, which is a concave portion for allowing gas to flow, were 2 mm in width and 0.5 mm in depth. The width of the convex ribs 22 and 32 between the gas flow paths was 1 mm. Further, manifold holes 23a and 23b for the oxidant gas, a manifold hole 24a and an outlet 24b for the fuel gas, and a manifold hole 25a and an outlet 25b for the cooling water are formed.

Further, FIG. 4 shows a front view of the separator 41 having a cooling channel for flowing cooling water. The same structure as the front surface of the separator 20 shown in FIG. 2 was formed on the back surface of the separator 41. Cooling water manifold hole 45
The positions and sizes of a and 45b were set to the same positions and sizes as the cooling water manifold holes 25a and 25b in FIG. Also, the manifold hole 43 for gas distribution
The same positions and sizes as a, 43b, 44a and 44b are the same as those of the gas manifold holes 23a, 23b, 2 in FIG.
The same position and size as 4a and 24b were set.

The portion 46 is provided with a cooling water inlet 45a.
It is the part where the water that flows in from is flowing, and the concave depth is 0.5.
mm. The portion 47 was formed in the middle of the cooling water passage and was left as a convex portion when the cooling water passage 46 was formed, and had the same height as the original base material. The cooling water flows from the inlet 45a, and the flow is divided by the portion 47, so that the cooling water flows over the entire surface of the portion 46 and reaches the manifold hole 45b. As described above, the volume resistivity of the separator manufactured by the manufacturing method according to the present invention and the base material obtained through only the molding step (1) was measured, and the results are shown in Table 1.

[0033]

[Table 1]

Compared to a base material (conventional separator) obtained without applying a DC ON-OFF pulse voltage, the separator obtained by the manufacturing method of the present invention has a reduced specific resistance. It became 100 mΩ · cm. By applying a pulsed voltage, discharge is intermittently generated between the insulating layers in the separator, which causes the binder resin that forms the insulating layer to carbonize, forming a conductive network and reducing the volume resistivity. Became.

Next, on the hydrogen ion conductive polymer electrolyte membrane 14 of the MEA shown in FIG. 1 produced as described above,
Manifold holes for forming cooling water, fuel gas and oxidant gas were formed. The structure of the MEA including the electrolyte membrane 14 having the manifold holes is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the MEA 50 includes an electrode portion 52 and an electrolyte membrane 5.
1. Manifold holes 53a, 53b, 54a and 54b for circulating fuel gas and oxidant gas, and manifold holes 55a and 55b for circulating cooling water were formed. These manifold holes are shown in FIGS.
The same position and size as the manifold hole in the separator shown in FIG.

The separator shown in FIG. 2 was arranged on the front surface of the MEA shown in FIG. 5, and the separator shown in FIG. 3 was arranged on the rear surface to obtain a unit cell. After stacking 2 cells of this unit cell, the 2 cell stack battery was sandwiched by the separators having the cooling water channel grooves shown in FIG. 4, and this pattern was repeated to obtain a battery stack of 50 cell stack batteries. At this time, the end plates were fixed to both ends of the battery stack with fastening rods via a stainless steel current collector plate and an electrically insulating insulating plate. The fastening pressure at this time was 10 kgf / cm ² per area of the separator.

The cell stack, which is the polymer electrolyte fuel cell of the present example thus produced, is maintained at 85 ° C.
One electrode was supplied with hydrogen gas that had been humidified and heated so as to have a dew point of 83 ° C, and the other electrode was supplied with air that was humidified and heated so as to have a dew point of 78 ° C. As a result, a battery open circuit voltage of 50 V was obtained when no load was applied and the current was not output to the outside. Using this cell stack, the fuel utilization rate is 8
0%, oxygen utilization rate 40%, and current density 0.5A / c
A continuous power generation test was conducted under the condition of m ² and the time change of the output characteristics (average voltage) was obtained, and the results are shown in FIG. As a result, it was confirmed that the battery stack of this example maintained a battery output with an average voltage of 0.5 V or more for 8000 hours or more.

Example 2 and Comparative Example 2 20 g of epoxy resin was used as the composition used in the molding step (1).
And 75 g of conductive carbon particles having an average particle size of 50 to 200 μm
Then, 5 g of carbon black having an average particle size of 30 nm to 100 nm was sufficiently dry kneaded, and then the composition obtained by granulating the dry kneaded composition to a diameter of 0.5 mm level was used. In addition, the composition is weighed and put into a predetermined mold, and while being pressurized and heated, the mold is a discharge plasma sintering machine power source (DR.SINTE manufactured by Sumitomo Coal Mining Co., Ltd.).
RS SPS-7.40) and applied an ON-OFF DC pulse voltage. That is, the molding step (1) and the voltage application step (2) were performed simultaneously. At this time, the pressurizing pressure was 500 kgf / cm ² , the mold temperature was 160 ° C., the voltage was 50 V, the pulse period was 60 Hz, and the molding time was 5 minutes. Other shapes of the separator and the like were the same as in Example 1. Table 2 shows the results of measuring the volume resistivity of the separator manufactured according to this example in the same manner as in Example 1.

[0039]

[Table 2]

Compared to a base material (conventional separator) obtained without applying DC ON-OFF pulse voltage, the separator obtained by the manufacturing method of the present invention has a reduced specific resistance. It became 50 mΩ · cm. By applying a pulsed voltage, discharge is intermittently generated between the insulating layers in the separator, which causes the binder resin that forms the insulating layer to carbonize, forming a conductive network and reducing the volume resistivity. Became. Further, using this separator, a battery stack was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, and its characteristics were evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1.
The results are shown in Fig. 7. As shown in FIG. 7, it was confirmed that the battery stack of this example also had better characteristics than the battery stack of Example 1. Further, the separator obtained in this example had toughness and impact resistance equivalent to those of the separator of Example 1, and had more excellent abrasion resistance.

Examples 3 to 5 In this example, polyphenylene sulfide 30 which is a binder resin is used.
g, and conductive carbon particles 65 having an average particle size of 50 to 200 μm
g and 5 g of silver powder having an average particle size of 50 to 200 μm were sufficiently kneaded while heating to prepare a composition used in the molding step (1) and pelletized. The pellet was put into an injection molding machine and injection-molded in a predetermined mold to prepare a base material. At this time, the injection pressure is 1600 kgf / c
m ² , the mold temperature was 150 ° C., and the molding time was 20 seconds (molding step (1)). Other conditions were the same as in Example 1.

A base material obtained by molding was treated with a discharge plasma sintering machine (DR.SINTER S manufactured by Sumitomo Coal Mining Co., Ltd.).
It was set to PS-7.40), and ON-OFF DC pulse voltage was applied for 5 minutes. Pressurization at that time is 30k
gf / cm ² , voltage was 50 V, and pulse frequency was 60 Hz (voltage application step (2)). Other conditions are Example 1
Same as.

FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing an enlarged schematic cross section of the separator manufactured according to this example.
In the cross section of the separator, a conductive carbon 72 having a diameter of 50 to 200 μm is dispersed in a matrix formed of a binder resin 71, and a conductive filler 73 connects the conductive carbon 72 around the matrix. It existed randomly. It is considered that this is because the application of the pulsed voltage intermittently caused discharge between the insulating layers in the separator, which carbonized the resin of the binder forming the insulating layer and formed a conductive network. Further, this makes it possible to reduce the volume resistivity.

Table 3 shows the results of measuring the volume resistivity of the separator produced in Example 3. Also,
A separator was prepared in the same manner as in Example 3 except that silver powder as a conductive filler was not added (Example 4), and the volume resistivity was measured in the same manner. The results are shown in Table 3. Further, in order to improve the moldability of the separator, a separator having an increased amount of binder resin was also produced. That is, 40 g of polyphenylene sulfide that is a binder resin, 55 g of conductive carbon particles having an average particle size of 50 to 200 μm, and 5 g of silver powder having an average particle size of 50 to 200 μm were sufficiently kneaded while heating to obtain a composition. , This was pelletized. Using this pellet, a separator was prepared in the same manner as in Example 3, and the volume resistivity was measured. The moldability is also shown in Table 3.

[0045]

[Table 3]

In Example 3, the specific resistance was reduced as compared with Example 4 in which no conductive filler was used,
It became mΩ · cm. Further, from the results of Example 5, due to the effect of adding a conductive filler to improve the conductivity,
It was found that even if the amount of resin was increased, the conductivity was at a level that sufficiently satisfied the function of the separator, and the moldability could be improved. Further, using these separators, a battery stack was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1, and its characteristics were evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1. The results are shown in Fig. 9. As shown in FIG. 9, it was confirmed that the battery stack of this example also had better characteristics than the battery stack of Example 1. Further, the separator obtained in this example had toughness and impact resistance equivalent to those of the separator of Example 1, and had superior wear resistance.

[0047]

According to the method for producing a conductive separator for a fuel cell according to the present invention, a composition containing a binder resin and conductive carbon is molded instead of the conventional carbon plate cutting method. By obtaining a base material and applying a pulsed voltage to the base material, a fuel cell separator having well-balanced improved conductivity and moldability can be manufactured at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical sectional view of an electrolyte membrane electrode assembly (MEA) produced in an example of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a fuel cell separator manufactured in an example of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the fuel cell separator manufactured in the example of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a separator having a cooling channel for flowing cooling water, which is manufactured in an example of the present invention.

FIG. 5: MEA with electrolyte membrane with manifold holes
Diagram showing the configuration of

FIG. 6 is a graph showing the output characteristics of the battery stack manufactured in Example 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a graph showing the output characteristics of the battery stack manufactured in Example 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged schematic cross-sectional view of a separator manufactured in Example 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a graph showing the output characteristics of the battery stack manufactured in Example 3 of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Gas diffusion layer 12 Catalyst layer 13, 44 electrodes 14, 45 Electrolyte membrane 15 MEA 20, 41, 50 separator 21, 31 Groove 22, 32 ribs 23,43 Manifold holes for oxidant gas 24,44 Fuel gas manifold holes 25,45 Coolant water manifold hole 71 resin 72 Conductive carbon 73 Conductive filler

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Hiroki Kusakabe             1006 Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electric             Sangyo Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shin Kobayashi             1006 Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electric             Sangyo Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Nobuhiro Hase             1006 Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electric             Sangyo Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shinsuke Takeguchi             1006 Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electric             Sangyo Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor, Hajime Shibata             1006 Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electric             Sangyo Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5H026 AA06 BB00 BB02 BB08 CC03                       CX07 EE02 EE05 EE11 EE12                       EE18

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A step of (1) obtaining a base material having a groove-shaped gas flow path on one surface by molding using a composition containing conductive carbon and a binder, and (2) a pulse shape on the base material. A method for producing a fuel cell separator, comprising the step of applying a voltage to obtain a polymer electrolyte fuel cell separator. 2. The method for producing a fuel cell separator according to claim 1, wherein the steps (1) and (2) are performed simultaneously. 3. The method for producing a fuel cell separator according to claim 1, wherein the composition further contains a conductive filler. 4. The second conductive filler is made of at least one selected from the group consisting of metals, conductive inorganic carbides, conductive inorganic nitrides, and conductive inorganic oxides. Item 4. A method for manufacturing a fuel cell separator according to any one of Items 1 to 3.