Title: Thermal conductivity and stability of nanosize carbon-black-filled PDMS: fuel cell perspective

Authors: Hao Chen, Ionel Botef, Haitao Zheng, Malik Maaza, V. Vasudeva Rao, V.V. Srinivasu

Addresses: Materials Science and Manufacturing, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa; School of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, P.O. WITS, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa. ' School of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, P.O. WITS, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa. ' Materials Science and Manufacturing, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. ' Materials Research Group, iThemba Labs, Cape Town, South Africa. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, Yamnampet, Ghatkesar, Hyderabad 501 301, AP, India. ' Materials Science and Manufacturing, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa

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, when compared with the pure PDMS). We found that PDMS–CB composites with lesser CB loading (10 wt%) achieve thermal conductivity on par with the reported values in the literature of epoxy resin–CB composites (with 70wt% loading).

Keywords: PDMS; polydimethylsiloxane; polymer nanocomposites; carbon black; thermal conductivity; thermal stability; fuel cells; nanotechnology; bipolar plate materials.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2011.040186

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2011 Vol.8 No.6/7, pp.437 - 445

Published online: 19 May 2011 *

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