Thermal conductivity and stability of nano size carbon black filled PDMS: Fuel cell perspective

Abstract

Carbon black filled Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was considered as a prospective bipolar plate material candidate for a Fuel Cell. In this perspective, thermal conductivity and stability of the composites were investigated. Samples with filler weight fractions from 10% to 25% were prepared. The Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) study under oxygen atmosphere has shown good thermal stability of the composite up to 300°C. Thermal conductivity as a function of temperature and filler fraction was measured. Results have shown excellent improvement in the PDMS thermal conductivity with carbon black fillers (an order of magnitude, as compared to the pure PDMS). The authors found that PDMS-CB composites with lesser CB loading (10 wt %) achieve thermal conductivity on par with the reported values in literature of epoxy resin-CB composites (with 70wt% loading).