Polymer composites with graphene

随着温室气体(GHG)排放对气候变化的影响越来越大，人们对替代内燃机的机动性也越来越感兴趣。电池电动汽车是一条路线，另一条是燃料电池。聚合物复合材料不仅具有机械强度高、重量轻等优点，而且还具有其他性能，如导电性和导热性，因此受到越来越多的关注。这种聚合物复合材料的一个应用是在质子膜燃料电池中，特别是双极燃料电池板，它构成了当前燃料电池的相当大的成本和重量。一种具有导电性的方法是在聚合物基质中添加碳填料--过去都曾使用过炭黑、碳纳米管、石墨纤维。石墨烯是一种较新进入市场的碳导电填料，因为它的二维层状结构具有有趣的性质。然而，由于高昂的成本和可用性，它的使用一直停滞不前。加拿大公司Hypergraph Clean Power Inc.开发了一种基于气雾剂的工艺，可以生产纯石墨烯，而不需要从石墨到石墨烯的加工路线通常需要的化学或机械加工。石墨烯的气溶胶凝胶的形成提供了一些有趣的特性，本研究将对热固性树脂中的湿法石墨烯进行研究，以了解填充材料对机械、电学和热学性能的影响，方法是将样品压缩成简单的斑块几何形状。我们考虑的目标应用将是双极燃料电池板，这些产品要求将推动材料系统在石墨烯含量方面的设计，以及任何其他已被证明可改善性能的碳填料的混合组合。这项研究的结果将为水位线材料提供有价值的材料和产品设计信息，以帮助增加石墨烯的供应和使用，用于需要轻质和优异的机械和能源性能的应用。这种先进材料系统的更广泛使用将加速开发机动替代系统，以减少温室气体排放。

With the increasing effects of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions on climate change, there is also increasing interest to alternatives to internal combustion engines for mobility. Battery electric vehicles are one route, and another is fuel cells. There is increasing interest in polymer composites that are not only mechanically strong and lightweight, but also have other properties, such as electrical and thermal conductivity. An application for such polymer composites is in proton membrane fuel cells, and specifically the bipolar fuel cell plates which make up a significant amount of the cost and weight of current fuel cells. One means to have electrical conductivity is by the addition of carbon fillers to the polymer matrix - carbon black, carbon nanotubes, graphite fiber have all been used in the past. Graphene is a more recent entry into the market as a carbon conductive filler because of its interesting properties due to its two dimensional layer geometry. However, its use has been stalled because of high costs and availability. Hydrograph Clean Power Inc, a Canadian company, has developed an aerosol based process to create pure graphene without chemical or mechanical processing normally required from the graphite to graphene processing routes. The aerosol gel formation of graphene has provided some interesting properties and this research will undertake a study of the Hydrograph graphene in thermoset resins to understand the effect of the filler material on mechanical, electrical and thermal properties, through compression molding of samples in simple plaque geometries. The target application in mind will be bipolar fuel cell plates and those product requirements will drive the design of the material systems in terms of graphene content, as well as any other hybrid combinations of carbon fillers that have been shown to improve properties. The outcomes of this research will provide valuable material and product design information for the Hydrograph material to help increase the supply and use of graphene for applications that require lightweight and superior mechanical and energy properties. Broader use of such advanced material systems will accelerate the development of alternative systems for mobililty to reduce emissions of GHG.