Effect of Carbon Fiber Filament and Graphite Fiber on the Mechanical Properties and Electrical Conductivity of Elastic Carbon Composite Bipolar Plate for PEMFC

Abstract

>> Highly conductive bipolar plate for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was prepared using phenol novolac-type epoxy/graphite powder (GP)/carbon fiber filament (CFF) composite, and a rubber-modified epoxy resin was introduced in order to give elasticity to the bipolar plate graphite fiber (GF) was incorporated in order to improve electrical conductivity. To find out the cure condition of the mixture of novolac-type and rubber-modified epoxies, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was carried out and their data were introduced to Kissinger equation. And tensile and flexural tests were carried out using universal testing machine (UTM) and the surface morphology of the fractured specimen and the interfacial bonding between epoxy matrix and CFF or GF were observed by a scanning electron microscopy (SEM).