Development of Open Pore Copper Foams to Use as Bipolar Plates in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell Stacks

Abstract

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stacks contain fluid flow plates, generally known as bipolar plates; which are traditionally made from graphite based materials. Brittleness of graphite enforces manufacturers to fabricate bipolar plates in great thicknesses which severely reduce the stack's power to weight ratio. Therefore, recently the use of low permeability open pore metallic foams has been attended. This survey is focused on development of powder metallurgy method to manufacture copper foams for use as bipolar plates. After three-point flexural tests and air permeability measurements, it was shown that powder metallurgy method based on using space holder agent has high capability to produce functionally graded foams in order to substitute conventional stack fluid field plates.