초록 ▼

Porous carbon sheets suitable for use as fuel cell electrode support plates are produced from inexpensive carbonizable filaments. The filaments are chopped into short lengths, felted, sprayed with a binder and the binder is cured whereby sheets are defined. The sheets are thereafter pyrolyzed to con

Porous carbon sheets suitable for use as fuel cell electrode support plates are produced from inexpensive carbonizable filaments. The filaments are chopped into short lengths, felted, sprayed with a binder and the binder is cured whereby sheets are defined. The sheets are thereafter pyrolyzed to convert both the binder and filaments to carbon and to thereby produce the desired porous substrate material.

대표청구항 ▼

A process for the manufacture of carbon substrate material having a fibrillar microstructure and a porosity in the range of 70-90% comprising the steps of: selecting an acrylic polymer filament having a diameter commensurate with the desired porosity of the substrate material, said filament containi

A process for the manufacture of carbon substrate material having a fibrillar microstructure and a porosity in the range of 70-90% comprising the steps of: selecting an acrylic polymer filament having a diameter commensurate with the desired porosity of the substrate material, said filament containing at least 50% acrylonitrile; stabilizing a plurality of the selected acrylic polymer filaments by heating the filaments in an oxidizing atmosphere until between 3% and 15% by weight oxygen is introduced into the polymer; reducing the stabilized filaments to fibers having a preselected average length; felting the fibers of preselected average length to produce a layer of uniform thickness with random fiber orientation; impregnating the felted fibers with a resinous binder to define a sheet material, the binder comprising 12-25% by weight of the sheet material; subjecting the sheet material including the stabilized acrylic polymer fibers to an elevated temperature to cure the resinous binder; and subjecting the sheet material to a temperature in the range of 1000°C to 1260°C in a non-oxidizing atmosphere subsequent to curing the binder to pyrolyze the fibers and binder and thereby produce a porous carbon substrate material.