Enhancing performance of advanced fuel cell design with functional energy materials and process

Abstract

Efficiency enhancement of hydrogen based electric powertrain is becoming highly relevant for medium to heavy duty transportation due to advantages of eminent electrochemical cell design and advances in infrastructure accessibility. Herein, a facile and highly effective fabrication process has been reported for the first time to demonstrate an outstanding mechanical strength and electrical conductivity simultaneously in the carbon rich composite designed to enhance the fuel cell performance. Improvement of composites with different advanced reinforced materials such as carbon veil, recycled carbon fiber as well as functional additives such as carbon black, multiwalled nanotube, etc. Was investigated through a holistic approach of optimized parameters. Advanced composite plates have been designed to be mechanically flexible, electrically conductive and cost effective; this newly designed composite for bipolar plate supersedes by far the US Department of Energy (DOE) target for fuel cell bipolar plate with a flexural strength of over 64 MPa and exceeding electrical conductivity of 200 S/cm. Notably, tuned process parameters as well as novel architecture of materials such as continuous carbon fiber and carbon veil can facilitate the fabrication of a light-weight high-performance carbon polymer composite for a wide range of applications including battery electrodes, supercapacitors, fuel cells and solar cell.

Keywords

• Fuel cell
• Renewable energy
• Bipolar plates
• Functional carbon materials
• Unidirectional carbon fiber reinforcement
• Electro-mechanical properties