Fuel cell is one of promising environment-friendly energy sources for the next generation. The bipolar plate is a major component of the PEM fuel cell stack, which takes a large portion of the stack cost. In this study, as the alternative materials of...
Fuel cell is one of promising environment-friendly energy sources for the next generation. The bipolar plate is a major component of the PEM fuel cell stack, which takes a large portion of the stack cost. In this study, as the alternative materials of bipolar plate of PEM fuel cells, graphite composites were fabricated by compression molding. P-15 particles were mixed with epoxy resin to provide electric conductivity and structural properties. To find out the most suitable electric properties, graphite composites were fabricated with different mixing ratio, processing pressure and temperature. By increasing mixing ratio and fabricated pressure, electric conductivity was improved due to the smaller gap between the particles. In addition, by increasing process temperature, the electric conductivity was also improved probably by the excited molecular activities and resulting low viscosity of the epoxy resin for better fill of the gaps. The results of mechanical test showed that the tensile strength of graphite composite was about 5㎫.