Effect Of Powder Polypropylene Size On The Properties Of Graphite-Stannum-Polypropylene Composite For Bipolar Plate

Ruslan, Rohaizad (2016) Effect Of Powder Polypropylene Size On The Properties Of Graphite-Stannum-Polypropylene Composite For Bipolar Plate. Project Report. UTeM, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

Text (24 Pages) Effect Of Powder Polypropylene Size On The Properties Of Graphite-Stannum-Polypropylene Composite For Bipolar Plate.pdf - Submitted Version Download (440kB)

Abstract

Bipolar plates are the main components in a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). Their main function is to conduct electricity in the fuel cell while still can withstand the force experienced due to the nature placement of the bipolar plates inside a PEMFC. A good bipolar plates must have good electrical conductivity and also good mechanical strength. The development of more lightweight and more advance polymer composite bipolar plates leads to further experimentation of maximizing the electrical conductivity and mechanical strength of the bipolar plates to the optimum level. In this research project, materials used to fabricate the bipolar plates are Graphite (Gr), Stannum (Sn) and Polypropylene (PP). Gr and Sn act as fillers while PP acts as binder. All the raw materials used to fabricate the bipolar plate are in powder form. The weight percentage is set to be 80 wt% for Gr and Sn, and the remaining 20 wt% for PP. Three different compositions of Gr/Sn are 70/10, 65/15 and 60/20 for every PP with the size of 500 μ, 250 μ and 100 μ which make a total of 9 samples. Ball mill machine is used to mix the materials before being hot pressed into a bipolar plate. The effect of different PP size shows the difference in electrical conductivity. The biggest PP powder size of 500 μ shows higher electrical conductivity compared to smaller size of PP powder regardless of different composition of Gr and Sn. The highest reading is 193.39 S/cm which is more than 100 S/cm of United States Department of Energy (US DOE) basic requirement. Both shore hardness and bulk density increases as the size of PP powder decreases and all the samples pass the basic requirement by the US DOE for both mechanical properties. The maximum value obtained is 62.0 for shore hardness test and 1.896 g/cm^3 for bulk density test.

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