Aqueous alkali metal chloride electrolytic cell

Claim 2

An electrolytic cell having a gas-liquid permeable porous electrode layer on a cation exchange membrane, wherein said electrode layer is formed by screen printing a paste comprising a hydrophobic polymer and an electrode powder on the surface of said cation exchange membrane, wherein said electrode powder is a metal, an electroconductive metal oxide, or an electroconductive reduced metal oxide powder, and bonding said paste to said membrane by the application of heat and pressure.

Claim 3

The electrolytic cell according to claim 1 wherein said electrode layer is an anode and said electrode powder for said anode is made of a platinum group metal or an electric conductive oxide thereof or an electric conductive reduced oxide thereof.

Claim 4

The electrolytic cell according to claim 1 wherein said electrode layer is a cathode and said electrode powder for said cathode is made of a platinum group metal or an electric conductive oxide thereof or an iron group metal.

Claim 5

The electrolytic cell according to claim 1 wherein said electrode layer has a porosity of 10 to 99% and a thickness of 0.1 to 100μ.

Claim 6

The electrolytic cell according to claim 1 or 3 wherein said screen has a mesh number of 10 to 2400 and a thickness of 2 mm to 4μ.

Claim 7

The electrolytic cell according to claim 1, 3 or 4 wherein said cation exchange membrane is made of a fluorinated polymer having carboxylic acid groups or sulfonic acid groups.

Claim 8

The electrolytic cell according to claim 6 wherein said cation exchange membrane is made of a copolymer having the units ##STR3## wherein X represents fluorine, chlorine or hydrogen atom or --CF 3 ; X' represents X or CF 3 (CF 2 ) m ; m represents an integer of 1 to 5; Y represents the following unit; ##STR4## x, y and z respectively represent an integer of 1 to 10; Z and Rf represent --F or C 1 -C 10 perfluoroalkyl group; and A represents --COOM or --SO 3 M or a functional group which is convertible into --COOM or --SO 3 M by a hydrolysis or a neutralization such as --CN, --COF, --COOR 1 , --SO 2 F, --CONR 2 R 3 and --SO 2 NR 2 R 3 and M represents hydrogen or an alkali metal atom; R 1 represents a C 1 -C 10 alkyl group; R 2 and R 3 represent H or a C 1 -C 10 alkyl group.

Claim 9

The electrolytic cell according to claim 1, which is used for producing an alkali metal hydroxide and chlorine by an electrolysis of an aqueous solution of an alkali metal chloride.