Characteristics of Expanded Graphite Filled Conductive Polymer Composites for PEM Fuel Cell Bipolar Plates

This study aims to optimize the mechanical and electrical properties of electrically conductive polymer composites (CPCs) for use as a material of bipolar plates for PEM fuel cells. The thin CPCs consisting of conductive fillers and polymer resin were fabricated by a preform molding technique. Expanded graphite (EG), flake-type graphite (FG) and carbon fiber (CF) were used as conductive fillers. This study tested two types of CPCs, EG/FG filled CPCs and EG/CF filled CPCs, to optimize the material properties. First, the characteristics of EG/FG filled CPCs were investigated according to the FG ratio for 7 and $100{\mu}m$ sized FG. CPCs using $100{\mu}m$ FG showed optimal material properties at 60 wt% FG ratio, which were an electrical conductivity of 390 S/cm and flexural strength of 51 MPa. The particle size was an important parameter to change the mechanical and electrical behaviors. The flexural strength was sensitive to the particle size due to the different levels of densification. The electrical conductivity also showed size-dependent behavior because of the different contributions to the conductive network. Meanwhile, the material properties of EG/CF filled CPCs was also optimized according to the CF ratio, and the optimized electrical conductivity and flexural strength were 290 S/cm and 58 MPa, respectively. The electrical conductivity of this case decreased similarly to the EG/FG filled case. On the other hand, the behavior of the flexural strength was more complicated than the EG/FG filled case, and the reason was attributed to the interaction between the strengthening effect of CF and the deterioration of voids.