Polymer composites with graphene

随着绿色家用气体（GHG）排放对气候变化的影响越来越大，人们对用于机动性的内燃机的替代品也越来越感兴趣。 电池电动汽车是一条路线，另一条是燃料电池。 人们对不仅具有机械强度和重量轻，而且还具有其他性能（如导电性和导热性）的聚合物复合材料越来越感兴趣。 这种聚合物复合材料的应用是质子膜燃料电池，特别是双极燃料电池板，其构成了当前燃料电池的大量成本和重量。 具有导电性的一种方法是通过将碳填料添加到聚合物基质中-炭黑、碳纳米管、石墨纤维在过去都已被使用。 石墨烯作为碳导电填料是最近进入市场的，因为其二维层几何形状导致的令人感兴趣的性质。 然而，由于成本高和可用性差，其使用一直停滞不前。 加拿大公司Hydrograph Clean Power Inc开发了一种基于气溶胶的工艺，可以生产纯石墨烯，而无需石墨到石墨烯加工路线通常所需的化学或机械加工。 石墨烯的气溶胶凝胶形成提供了一些有趣的特性，这项研究将对热固性树脂中的Hydrograph石墨烯进行研究，以了解填充材料对机械，电气和热性能的影响，通过简单的斑块几何形状的样品的压缩成型。 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，以及已被证明可以改善性能的碳填料的任何其他混合组合。 这项研究的结果将为水文图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，用于需要轻质和上级机械和能量特性的应用。更广泛地使用这种先进的材料系统将加速替代系统的发展，以减少温室气体的排放。

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.