Control of resistivity in NASA inorganic-organic separators is achieved by incorporating small percentages of high surface area, fine particle silica with other ingredients in the separator coating. The volume resistivity is predictable from the surface area of filler particles in the coating. The approach is applied to two polymer- plasticizer -filler coating systems, where the filler content of each is below the generally acknowledged critical pigment volume concentration of the coating. Application of these coating systems to 0.0254 cm thick (10-mil) fuel cell grade asbestos sheet produces inexpensive, flexible, microporous separators that perform as well as the original inorganic-organic concept, the Astropower separator.
