Patent ID: 8057960

Claim:
A method for manufacturing an electrode for fuel cells comprising: dropping a solution that contains a platinum-containing compound onto a carbon paper or carbon cloth, and then heating the carbon paper or carbon cloth so as to obtain the carbon paper or carbon cloth where platinum particles are immobilized; preparing an electrolyte precursor mixture containing a polymerizable electrolyte precursor represented by (R 1 O) 3 Siâ€”R 2 â€”SO 3 H (wherein, R 1 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms; and R 2 represents an alkylene group having 1 to 15 carbon atoms), a polymerizable spacer precursor represented by (R 3 O) m SiR 4 n (wherein, R 3 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms; R 4 represents â€”(CH 2 ) x â€”(CF 2 ) y â€”CF 3 (wherein, x represents 0, 1 or 2, and y represents an integer of 4 to 18); m represents 2 or 3; and n represents 1 or 2, and wherein the sum of m and n is 4), and a solvent; impregnating the carbon paper or carbon cloth where platinum particles are immobilized with the electrolyte precursor mixture to form a catalyst-electrolyte precursor complex; and performing a copolymerization reaction of the polymerizable electrolyte precursor with the polymerizable spacer precursor in the catalyst-electrolyte precursor complex to form a water-insoluble polymer electrolyte layer composed of a copolymer of the polymerizable electrolyte precursor and the polymerizable spacer precursor, to obtain an electrode for fuel cells comprising the base material, the catalyst particles, the porous carbon particles and the polymer electrolyte layer.