| The high manufacturing cost is one of the biggest obstacles for the PEM fuel cell commercialization and an important component of the stack cost and volume is the bipolar plate. This research focused on developing economical bipolar plates with very high electrical conductivity and mechanical properties. Several molding compounds, containing epoxy resin and milled carbon fiber, graphite foil as conductive modifiers, were developed. Each molding compound was compression molded followed by electrical and flexural testing. The plates containing 57 wt% graphite foil showed in-plane conductivity of 400S/cm, which exceeded the Department of Energy (DOE) target (100S/cm) and the highest of all the currently existing polymer-composite plates. The bipolar plates also showed higher flexural strength than currently available polymer-composites. This research also shows that the bipolar plates can be produced using a conventional compression press without the post-cure step. As a result, bipolar plates can be manufactured at much lower cost as compared to currently available technologies to produce bipolar plates. |
