NOVELTY - Making (M1) modified carbon material involves providing a carbon material suitable for use in a fuel cell component; forming a mixture by mixing the carbon material with an organic solvent; adding pendant fluorocarbon compound; adding a reductant to the mixture; and agitating the mixture for a time period sufficient to generate radicals which form carbon-carbon covalent bonds with the carbon material to form modified carbon material.    USE - For making modified carbon material used in fabricating fuel cell components (claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The fluorocarbon group comprises perfluorocarbon group or perfluorosulfonic acid group because of their demonstrated thermal, chemical, and electrochemical stability in various fuel cell environments. These fluorocarbons improve water management and performance of the fuel cell component, reduce the corrosion rate of the fuel cell component, improve stability and uniformity of the fuel cell component, and reduce the reliance on materials such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) or Nafion to alter the fuel cell components affinity towards water.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Making (M1) modified carbon material involves providing a carbon material suitable for use in a fuel cell component; forming a mixture by mixing the carbon material with an organic solvent; adding pendant fluorocarbon compound of formula I-R' (i); adding a reductant to the mixture; and agitating the mixture for a time period sufficient to generate radicals of .R' which form carbon-carbon covalent bonds with the carbon material to form a modified carbon material.R'=fluorocarbon.    INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for the following:    (1) method (M2) involving forming a mixture by mixing carbon material suitable for use in fuel cell component, organic solvent, reductant, and compound having formula ICnF2n in an amount such that the ratio of CnF2n to carbon material is 0.25-5 mmol/g, and agitating the mixture to form a modified carbon material;    (2) method (M3) involving forming first mixture by mixing carbon material suitable for use in fuel cell component, organic solvent, reductant, and the compound (i), where the ratio of R' to carbon material is 0.25-5 mmol/g, and the R' comprises a perfluorosulfonic acid precursor molecule containing sulfonyl fluoride end group (SO2F), agitating the mixture to form modified carbon material, converting the sulfonyl fluoride end group to an end group containing sulfonate functional group, and converting the end group comprising sulfonate functional group to sulfonic acid end group;    (3) product (P1) comprising a fuel cell component having modified carbon material containing fluorocarbon group covalently bonded to the carbon material; and    (4) product (P2) comprising a carbon-based fuel cell component containing pendant fluorocarbon groups covalently bonded to them by a carbon-carbon bond.    n=1-10.