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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Synergistic Effects and Modeling of Thermally Conductive Resins for Fuel Cell Bipolar Plate Applications.

Synergistic Effects and Modeling of Thermally Conductive Resins for Fuel Cell Bipolar Plate Applications.

Hauser, Rebecca A.

Paperback

Technology & Engineering

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1243447508
ISBN13: 9781243447500
Publisher: Proquest Umi Dissertation Pub
Pages: 422
Weight: 1.83
Height: 1.10 Width: 7.99 Depth: 10.00
Language: English
Increasing the thermal conductivity of a polymer can allow for the conductive resin to be used for a broad range of applications. One emerging market for thermally conductive resins is for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell bipolar plates. The primary roles of the bipolar plate are to carry the reactant gases (hydrogen on one side and air (oxygen) on the other), provide electrical contact between adjacent cells in the stack, and remove the water and transfer away the heat produced by the reaction. For this work a high temperature thermoplastic based resin, Vectra A950RX liquid crystal polymer was used. The thermal conductivity of this polymer was increased by the addition of conductive carbon fillers (carbon black, carbon fiber, and synthetic graphite particles). Conductive resins were produced and tested for through-plane and in-plane thermal conductivity that contained varying amounts of these single carbon fillers. The maximum single filler amounts that could be extruded and injection molded were 15 wt% for carbon black, 80 wt% for synthetic graphite, and 60 wt% for carbon fiber. In addition, combinations of fillers were investigated by conducting two 23 factorial designs. Thermocarb TC-300 synthetic graphite caused the largest increase in composite through-plane and in-plane thermal conductivity, when compared to the carbon black and carbon fiber. The injection molded composites containing 70, 75, and 80 wt% synthetic graphite and the compression molded composites containing 70 and 80 wt% synthetic graphite all had an in-plane thermal conductivity > 20 W/m-K, which is desired for fuel cell bipolar plates. The two factorial designs showed that for the single fillers, synthetic graphite caused the largest increase in composite thermal conductivity. For both factorial designs, for the combinations of fillers, the composites containing carbon black and synthetic graphite caused the largest increase in composite thermal conductivity. The composites containing synthetic graphite and carbon fiber also caused a statistically significant increase in composite thermal conductivity at the 95% confidence level. For the second factorial design, all of the multiple filler composites caused a statistically significant increase in composite thermal conductivity. Mathematical models were developed from the experimental data that can be used to predict the through-plane and in-plane thermal conductivity of the single filler composites containing synthetic graphite, carbon fiber, and carbon black. Through-plane and in-plane thermal conductivity models were also developed for composites containing combinations of synthetic graphite and carbon fiber in a liquid crystal polymer matrix. These models are useful because they have the potential to eliminate the need for experimental work when selecting materials for a given application.

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