| abstract |
A high polymer electrolyte fuel cell, comprising a porous electrode having a gas diffusion layer, wherein the gas diffusion layer comprises a gas flow passage having a bottom surface on an electrolyte film side thereof, and the properties of carbon fibers forming the bottom surface of the gas flow passage are different from those of the carbon fibers forming the side wall of the gas flow passage and/or the top surface of the gas flow passage, and the degrees of graphitization, degrees of graphite orientation, or microstructures of fibers are desirably different from each other, particularly, the hydrophilic group density of the carbon fibers forming the bottom surface of the gas flow passage is small, whereby the gas diffusion layer having a water holding property can be provided without sacrificing a gas permeability. |