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http://dx.doi.org/10.7316/KHNES.2012.23.2.134

Evaluation and Fabrication of Composite Bipolar Plate to Develop a Light Weight Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Stack for Small-scale UAV Application (I)  

Kang, Kyung-Mun (School of Mechanical Engineering, Inha Univ.)
Park, Sung-Hyun (School of Mechanical Engineering, Inha Univ.)
Kim, Jin-Soo (ILDO F&C institute of technology)
Ji, Hyun-Jin (Department of Defense Advanced R&D Center, Agency for Defense Development)
Ju, Hyun-Chul (School of Mechanical Engineering, Inha Univ.)
Publication Information
Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society / v.23, no.2, 2012 , pp. 134-142 More about this Journal
Abstract
A bipolar plate is a major component of a fuel cell stack, which occupies 50~60% of the total weight and over 50% of the total cost of a typical fuel cell stack. In this study, a composite bipolar plate is designed and fabricated to develop a compact and light-weight direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack for a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) application. The composite bipolar plates for DMFCs are prepared by a compression molding method using resole type phenol resin as a binder and natural graphite and carbon black as a conductor filler and tested in terms of electrical conductivity, mechanical strength and hydrogen permeability. The flexural strength of 63 MPa and the in-plane electrical conductivities of 191 S $cm^{-1}$ are achieved under the optimum bipolar plate composition of phenol : 18%; natural graphite : 82%; carbon black : 3%, indicating that the composite bipolar plates exhibit sufficient mechanical strength, electrical conductivity and hydrogen permeability to be applied in a DMFC stack. A DMFC with the composite bipolar plate is tested and shows a similar cell performance with a conventional DMFC with graphite-based bipolar plate.
Keywords
Composite bipolar plate; Light-weight; Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV); Direct methanol fuel cell(DMFC);
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
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