• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.85.1-85.1
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• 2011

In this study, Grafoil$^{TM}$ which has comparable electric resistance and chemical stability but is flexible, fragile, and cheap material was adopted as bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) having only one straight line flow channel. Because of its flexibility, pressurizations of cell with various pressures showed different operating characteristics compared to ordinary graphite-used PEMFC. While performances of both cells decreased as these were pressurized, investigation of ohmic and faradaic resistance by electrochemical impedance measurement indicated different tendency of change. Ohmic resistance of graphite-used cell increased with increasing pressure, which is reversed in Grafoil$^{TM}$-used cell. It is speculated that effective chemical reaction area is decreased with increasing pressure in case of graphite-used one, but because of flexible property of Grafoil$^{TM}$, gas diffusion layer in Grafoil$^{TM}$-used cell was well-activated. Different rate of change of faradaic resistances in both cells support this supposition. However, although optimum point of pressurization is found, it is required to investigate other operating conditions because of low performance compared to graphite-used cell.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.887-888
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• 2010

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.247-250
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• 2009

This study considers the feasibility of using the low cost assembled separator. The graphite plate has been widely used as the separator in the field of PEMFCs(Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) industry because of its excellent material properties such as good corrosion resistance, good electrical conductance and so on. However, there are some problems for the commercialization due to its poor cost effectiveness for the large volume manufacturing and lack of mechanical strength. From this respect, this study has focused on the manufacturing technology in order to reduce the price for the commercialization of separator. This study also shows that the assembled separator of the suggested structure, which is composed of grafoil and PC(PolyCarbonate) materials, could be manufactured at low cost enough for the mass production. The flow fields produced by cutting foils and the base plates of the separators were simply made by mechanical work.