Pounds for polymers

Southampton-based fuel cell materials company Bac2 has raised £2m of private funding from London Business Angels, enabling the company to commercialise its so-called ElectroPhen polymer.

The company believes that its ElectroPhen is the only bulk, commercially available electrically conductive polymer that can be cured at room temperature and moulded easily. Electrically conducting pathways are produced in-situ during the production process, and the conductivity can be further enhanced by adding conductive fillers to produce polymer composites.

The material might well prove to be a key enabler to the uptake and success of fuel cells. In April this year, the company demonstrated that it comfortably exceeded the US Department of Energy conductivity target of 200 Siemens per centimetre, which it set for materials used to make bipolar plates for use in automotive fuel cell applications.

Bipolar plates and end plates typically make up to 70 per cent of the weight and 30 per cent of the cost of a typical Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cell stack. Bac2 believes that making them from ElectroPhen will deliver substantial cost savings without compromising performance.