**1.9. Bipolar plates: The key performance component of PEMFC**

The successful commercialization of fuel cell for future use and its suitability to compete on economical scale above other energy sources still depend on the performance of the bipolar plates. The bipolar plate accounts for more than 40% of the total stack cost and about 80% of the total weight[13].

As a result of this, there have been significant esearchresearch and evelopmentdevelopment activities in the past few years to lower their cost, reduce their size, and improve their performance and lifetime in applications.
