Preparation and characterization of graphite/resin composite bipolar plates for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Preparing conductive composite bipolar plates for fuel cells by compression molding is a promising research direction. The very key point is how to choose the conductivity filler and binder to meet the requirement. In this article, natural graphite and expanded graphite were used as the filler, and...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chen Hui, Xia Xiao-Hong, Yang Li, He Yue-de, Liu Hong-bo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2016-01-01
Series:Science and Engineering of Composite Materials
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/secm-2013-0306
Description
Summary:Preparing conductive composite bipolar plates for fuel cells by compression molding is a promising research direction. The very key point is how to choose the conductivity filler and binder to meet the requirement. In this article, natural graphite and expanded graphite were used as the filler, and phenolic resin and epoxy resin were used as the binder. The composite bipolar plates were prepared by solution intercalation mixing, compression molding, and curing. The variations in electrical conductivity and mechanical properties were evaluated with the resin content. The results show that the types of fillers and binders have significant effects on the performance of composite bipolar plates, and that the thermal stability of all composite bipolar plates is very good at the fuel-cell working temperature. The corrosion current densities were <16 μA/cm2, which indicates that the composites developed in this work meet many attributes of bipolar plates for use in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.
ISSN:0792-1233
2191-0359