Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1998-01-28
2001-04-03
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S231000, C156S247000, C427S146000, C427S294000, C427S058000, C428S304400, C429S213000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06210513
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND ART
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a composites of a solid polymer electrolyte and an electrode, and also relates to a battery produced using the manufacturing method and to a method for producing a battery using the manufacturing method.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
A solid polymer electrolyte (hereinafter sometimes abbreviated as “SPE”) is a polymer substance containing an electrolyte salt which polymer substance exhibits high ionic conductivity in the solid state and development thereof is being driven for the purpose of the application to various sensors, fuel batteries, coming generation batteries, photoelectric cells and electrochromic elements.
In order to impart high ionic conductivity to SPE, lower glass transition temperatures are more advantageous. However, if such is the case, the film strength is reduced and the SPE film disadvantageously becomes difficult to handle industrially. While there has been proposed a method of adding an organic solvent to SPE, this incurs a reduction in the strength thereof and the handling of the SPE film becomes even more difficult.
Accordingly, in order to laminate SPE on an electrode, a method of coating an SPE prepolymer directly on the electrode surface and then curing the polymer by cross-linking might be considered promising. However, the coating method is disadvantageous in that the thickness of SPE layer is difficult to control and homogeneous thin films can be hardly obtained.
To cope with this, a method of forming SPE into a film and adhering the film to an electrode is being attempted.
However, this method has problems in that the SPE film is generally weak in the strength and difficult to adhere to the electrode without any breakage. Moreover, SPE film containing an electrolytic solution is highly hygroscopic and can be difficultly adhered to the electrode while maintaining its low water content.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Under these circumstances, the present invention has been made and the objects of the present invention are to provide a method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte and an electrode which allows for fixation of a film comprising an SPE film or a film made from an SPE polymer containing no electrolyte (hereafter, abbreviated as pre-SPE) (in the present invention, the term “solid polymer electrolyte film” includes the both films above) to an electrode in a simple and easy manner and to provide a battery produced using such a manufacturing method and a method for producing a battery using the method.
As a result of extensive investigations, the present inventors have found that the above-described objects can be attained by fixing a solid polymer electrolyte film to a porous electrode while reducing the pressure inside the porous electrode, fabricating a battery, and then impregnating the electrode in a solution comprising an electrolyte salt having high hygroscopic property. The present invention has been accomplished based on these findings.
By the method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and an electrode according to the present invention, there can easily be obtained a thin composite having a uniform thickness and the solid battery obtained with this composite is free of short or the like, has high performance and is useful.
That is, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a solid polymer electrolyte film/electrode composite, the method comprising fixing a solid polymer electrolyte film to a porous electrode comprising an electrochemical active substance while reducing the pressure inside the porous electrode.
Also, the present invention provides a method for producing a battery, the method comprising impregnating the electrode of the solid polymer electrolyte film/electrode composite obtained by the method described above with an electrolytic solution under reduced pressure and a battery obtained by the method.
That is, the present invention relates to the method for manufacturing a solid polymer electrolyte film/electrode composites, to the method for producing a battery using the composites and to a battery produced by the production method as follows.
1) A method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode, comprising the steps of: providing a thin film-shaped porous electrode comprising an electrochemically active substance; and reducing the pressure inside the porous electrode.
2) A method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode, comprising the steps of: coating on an electrode surface of the thin film-shaped porous electrode a polymerizable compound which is converted to a solid polymer electrolyte or a pre-solid polymer electrolyte upon polymerization; and reducing the pressure inside the porous electrode after superposing the electrode surface coated with the polymerizable compound onto the solid polymer electrolyte film.
3) The method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode as described in 1) or 2) above, wherein the solid polymer electrolyte film has an ion conductivity at room temperature of 10
−5
S/cm or more.
4) The method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode as described in any one of 1) to 3) above, wherein the solid polymer electrolyte film contains a cross-linking polymer having a urethane bond and an oxyalkylene group.
5) The method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode as described in 2) above, wherein the polymerizable compound coated on the electrode has a urethane bond and an oxyalkylene group.
6) The method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode as described in any one of 1) to 5) above, wherein the solid polymer electrolyte film is obtained by polymerizing a composition comprising a solvent having dissolved therein a polymerizable compound.
7) The method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode as described in any one of 1) to 5) above, wherein the solid polymer electrolyte film is obtained by polymerizing a composition comprising a solvent containing an electrolyte salt having dissolved therein a polymerizable compound.
8) A method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode, comprising the steps of: coating a polymerizable compound which converts to a solid polymer electrolyte or a pre-solid polymer electrolyte upon polymerization on an electrode surface of a laminate film comprising a film base material and a film-shaped porous electrode on the film base material; reducing the pressure inside the electrode after superposing the surface coated with the polymerizable compound onto the solid polymer electrolyte film; and peeling off the film base material.
9) The method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode, as described in 8) above, further comprising the step of polymerizing the polymerizable compound after the step of reducing the pressure inside the electrode.
10) The method for manufacturing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and a thin film-shaped electrode, as described in 8) or 9) above, wherein the film base material has a metal or metal oxide coating, on which the film-shaped porous electrode is provided to form a laminate film.
11) A method for producing a battery, comprising the step of: providing a composite of a solid polymer electrolyte film and an electrode obtained by the method as described in any one of 1) to 10) above; and impregnating under reduced pressure the electrode in the composite with an electrolytic solution.
12) The method for producing a battery as described in 11) above, wherein the electrolytic solution comprises a polymerizable compound and an electrolyte salt and the polymerizable compound i
Hirata Motoyuki
Moriguchi Toshikazu
Yotsuyanagi Junji
Crispino Richard
Lorengo J. A.
Showa Denko K.K.
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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