Effect of Carbon Fiber Loading in Graphite-Polypropylene Composite

Properties as Bipolar Plate for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell

(PEMFC)
Mohd Zulkefli Selamat1, a, Noor Ashikin Jamil1,b and Rafidah Hasan1, c
1

Advanced Material Group, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,

UniversitiTeknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Hang Tuah Jaya,

76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia
a

ashikinjamil90@gmail.com, bzulkeflis@utem.edu.my, crafidahhasan@utem.edu.my

Keywords: Graphite; carbon fiber; polypropylene; electrical conductive polymer composite; bipolar
plate.

Abstract. The performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) is dependent on
the properties of bipolar plates(BP). Bipolar plates are one of the main components in PEMFC
stacks and they make up a large portion of the stack volume and cost. In this research, bipolar plates
has been developed using hybrid fillers; graphite (Gr) as a main filler and carbon fiber (CF) as
second filler while polypropylene (PP) as a binder in Gr/CF/PP composite. All the materials will be
in powder form and the composition of this composite was fixed of 80% (fillers) /20% (PP)
according to weight percentage (wt. %). Meanwhile the contents or the loading of CF was varied
from 5 wt. % up to 20 wt. % of the total weight of fillers (80 wt. %). The ball mill being used to
mix the two fillers and binder together before being pressed by compression molding (hot press) in
order to produce rectangular shape (140mm x 60mm) sample. The electrical and mechanical
properties of the developed composite as BP were measured to investigate its suitability to be used
as BP for the PEMFC. The result shows that the electrical and mechanical properties has improved
as the loading of CF has been increased. The composite with CF loading of 5 wt. % has shown the
highest value for electrical conductivity 262.75 S/cm and flexural strength of 40.2 MPa. This
finding shows that the properties Gr/CF/PP composite is suitable for BP of PEMFC in the future.
Introduction
Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) or also called proton exchange membrane fuel
cells is widely applied in automobiles and BP is one of the most important component in PEMFC
stack [1-3]. There is a strong relationship between the material employed in the manufacture of the
bipolar plate and its final properties. The most commonly used material for a bipolar plate is
graphite which has good electrical conductivity and excellent corrosion resistance with a low
density but lacks mechanical strength and has poor ductility yet it also the heaviest part of PEMFC
[3-5]. The other materials such as metal-based require proper machining process, need special
coating, have extra weight and have high tendency to corrode even though they have good electrical
conductivity [6].
Hence, conductive polymer composite with carbon based BP is an attractive option to use
for PEMFC [3&5]. On the other hand, graphite/polymer composites can be considered as an ideal
material for producing BP. Thus, in this research graphite and carbon fiber are used as fillers for BP
in order to improve the electrical and mechanical properties and ease to manufacture besides
reducing the weight and fabrication cost [3&4]. Moreover, CF has a very high tensile and
compressive strength, and have a high resistance to corrosion, creep and fatigue [7]. BP that being
produced must achieved the requirement target specified by the United States of America
Department of Energy (DOE) as shown in Table 1 [8]. The objective of this research is to study the

effect of CF loading in Gr/CF/PP composite properties such as electrical conductivity and

mechanical properties.
Table 1. Requirement properties for the bipolar plate (DOE target) [8]
Property
Value
Electrical conductivity
> 100 [Scm-1]
Thermal conductivity
> 10 [W(mK)-1]
Flexural strength
> 25 [MPa]
Shore Hardness
> 50
Bulk Density
<5 [g/cm3]
Methodology
Materials. The polymer matrix used in this research was PP grade Titan 600 which was purchased
from Polypropylene Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. The main conductive filler is Gr powder and the second
filler is chopped CF purchased from Zoltek Industries. Comparison of properties between PP, CF
and Gr are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Properties of Gr, CF and PP
Material
Grade
Density[g/cm3]
Thermal
stability[C]
Size
Resistivity

Gr
3243
1.74
350-400

CF
Chop Flake
1.72
2000

PP
Titan
0.91
175-220

60[m]
1295
[108m]

7.2 [m]
0.00155
[cm]

2 [mm]
1[1014m]

Table 3. Composition of G/CF/PP composite

Fillers [wt.%]
Gr
80
75
70
65
60

CF
0
5
10
15
20

Binder [wt.%]
PP
20
20
20
20
20

Preparation of composites. A ball mill was used to mixed the fillers and binder. But before that,
the PP granular was pulvarised into powder. After that, the mould of size (140mm x 60mm) was
being pressed in compression molding machine atthe temperature of 185C with 70 tonned to
produced a rectangular sample. The amount of fillers in one composition is fixed about 80 wt. %
and another 20 wt. % is binder. CF loading is varied from 0 wt. % to 20 wt. % respectively from the
fillers content as shown in Table 3. The electrical conductivity, flexural strength, shore hardness
and bulk density were observed to study the effect of CF loading on the properties of Gr/CF/PP
composite. The electrical conductivity was measured using Jandel Multi Height Four Point Probes,
shore hardness is measured by using Shore durometer and bulk density measured by using
Densimeter according to ASTM D792. While the flexural strength was determined using Universal
Testing Machine according to ASTM D790.
Result and Discussion
Based on the photos shown in Table 4, there are lumps of materials that can be seen on the
surface of sample with CF content of 15 wt. % and 20 wt. %. Besides that, the samples of 15 wt. %
and 20 wt. % have uneven and rough surface. This is due to the mixture of G/CF/PP composite is
tend to agglomerate when the quantity of CF content is bigger. The surface condition of thus
composites were influenced the final properties and the tests result of the Gr/CF/PP composites.

Table 4. Photo of each composition of G/CF/PP composite

Compositi
on of
G/CF/PP
[wt. %]

10

15

20

Photo

Electrical
Conductivity [S/cm]

300

262.75

250
200
150

40.2
116.29

100

105.1
32.72

50

92.69

40.2

28.05

77.53

16.83

0
0

10

15

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Flexural
Strength [Mpa]

Effect of CF on Electrical Conductivity. Electrical conductivity of G/CF/PP composites with

various CF loading was shown in Fig. 1. It shown that, the electrical conductivity of G/CF/PP
composite has increased with the increasing CF loading from 116.29 S/cm (0 wt. %) to 262.75 S/cm
(5 wt. %), but when the CF content had been further increased, the electrical conductivity has
decreased to 105.10 S/cm (10 wt. %) [3]. The percentage of increament between G/PP composite
and G/CF/PP composites with 5 wt. % CF content is about 125.94 %. As compared to DOE target,
the value of electrical conductivity of 5 wt. % CF content was higher than the target value which is
100 S/cm. The results is supported by Lee et al., 2009 and Mathur et al., 2008, which the electrical
conductivity increases with increasing carbon fiber loading until the maximum loading and then
decreases with further increase in carbon fiber content [3&5].

20

CF content [wt. %]
Electrical Conductivity [S/cm]

Flexural Strength [Mpa]

Fig. 1. Graph of electrical conductivity and flexural strength against CF content in G/CF/PP
composite.
Flexural strength. The flexure strength result is shown in Fig 1. The highest flexural strength of
G/CF/PP composite of 40.2 MPa is observed at CF loading of 5 wt. % and is a more than 100%
improvement compared to the G/PP composite. After that, the value of flexural strength is
decreased with further increament of CF content at 10 wt. % until 20 wt. %. CF act as a
reinforcement materials as CF has high aspect ratio and fibrous that can improve the electrical

conductivity and flexural strength [3&5]. Lee et al., 2009 also shown the same behaviour of G/CF
composites [3]. Flexural strength with 10 wt. % and 15 wt. % of CF content has decreased and then
it has increased with increasing CF loading. During the test run for 20 wt. % of CF content, the
samples were not break in the middle as it should be. It is due to the uneven and rough surface of
the samples and agglomerate between the three materials. This can also shows that there is
imperfect bonding between the fibers and binders [3]. This explains the unstable trend in the
flexural strength of the composites with high filler loadings. All the composition of G/CF/PP
composites were achieved and higher than the DOE target which is 25 MPa.

65
64
63
62
61
60
59
58
57
56
55

1.8

64.33
62.48

1.718
1.700

61.56

1.650

1.630

1.75

62.56

1.7
1.634

1.65

58.56

1.6
1.55

Bulk Density [g/cm3]

Shore Hardness

Shore hardness. As shown in Fig. 2, the shore hardness of the composite has increased after 5 wt.
% of CF was added then it has decreased with more added CF content. There is 9.85% of
increament between G/PP composite (58.56) and G/CF/PP composites (64.33) of 5 wt. % CF
loading. The increament in hardness of the samples with addition of CF can be attributed to the
well-known ribbon or glassy carbon structure of PAN based carbon fibers [5]. Furthermore , the
surfaces condition of the composites were highly influenced the result of shore hardness. The
composite with smooth and flat surface will increased the hardness value and vise versa.While,
compared to DOE target, all value of the shore hardness of G/CF/PP were higher than target which
is 50. According to the result, the composition for bipolar plate of G/CF/PP composites with 5 wt.
% CF content was highly recommended.

1.5
0

10

15

20

CF content [wt. %]
Shore Hardness

Bulk Density

Fig. 2. Graph of shore hardness and bulk density versus CF content

Bulk Density. According to the Fig. 2, it showed that the value of bulk density for G/CF/PP
composites has decreased with the increasing of CF contents. Initially, at 0 wt. % of CF, the value
of bulk density was 1.718 g/cm3 and it dropped with the loading of 5 wt. % of CF (1.700 g/cm3)
and until 1.634 g/cm3 for 20 wt% of CF. The minimum value of bulk density was 1.630 g/cm3
shows by 15 wt. % of CF loading. Gr has the highest value of density, so when the value of Gr
decrease, the value of bulk density of the specimens also decreases. Besides that, the bulk density
for all composition are meet the DOE target which is lower than 1.9 g/cm3. The density is
decreasing with additional CF contents is due to lower density of CF compared to Gr and PP.

Conclusion
The addition of CF to the G/PP composite obviously effect the electrical and mechanical properties
of G/CF/PP composites. It was found out that, the composites with 5 wt. % of CF content was
highly suitable as bipolar plate for PEMFC. The addition of CF in G/PP composite offers a high
opportunity in production of high conductive composites especially for PEMFC bipolar plates.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia and Ministry
of Science, Technology and Innovation for sponsoring this work under Grant
PJP/(2013)/FKM(6A)/S01181 and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) for financial
sponsoring during this research.
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