Graphene-based bipolar plates for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Abstract

Bipolar plates (BPs) are a major component of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). BPs play a multifunctional character within a PEMFC stack. It is one of the most costly and critical part of the fuel cell, and hence the development of efficient and cost-effective BPs is of much interest for the fabrication of next-generation PEMFCs in future. Owing to high electrical conductivity and chemical inertness, graphene is an ideal candidate to be utilized in BPs. This paper reviews recent advances in the area of graphene-based BPs for PEMFC applications. Various aspects including the momentous functions of BPs in the PEMFC, favorable features of graphene-based BPs, performance evaluation of various reported BPs with their advantages and disadvantages, challenges at commercial level products and future prospects of frontier research in this direction are extensively documented.

Keywords

graphene / bipolar plate / polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell / proton exchange membrane fuel cell

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the work of all researchers in this field that helped us compile this review.

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