Experimental investigations on the corrosion resistance characteristics of coated metallic bipolar plates for PEMFC

Ender Dur, Ömer Necati Cora, Muammer Ko*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Bipolar plates (BPPs) made of stainless steels preferred in PEM Fuel Cell (PEMFC) applications due to their high electrical conductivity, low material and production costs, low weight and mechanical strength. However, their corrosion resistances are not at desired levels for real PEMFC working conditions. To overcome this issue, different coating types are suggested. In this study, corrosion resistance behavior of 51 μm-thick SS316L metallic bipolar plates that were coated with the three different PVD coatings (TiN, CrN, and ZrN) at three thicknesses (0.1 μm, 0.5 μm, and 1 μm), and then were formed with two different manufacturing processes (stamping and hydroforming) investigated. Potentiodynamic and potentiostatic corrosion experiments were performed on the coated-formed SS316L plates, and coated-unformed blanks. Corrosion test results indicate that 1 μm ZrN coating demonstrated the highest corrosion resistance among the tested cases regardless of the manufacturing process employed. Moreover, hydroformed bipolar plates exhibited higher corrosion resistance than the stamped BPPs, but lower than the blank samples. Hardness measurements were also performed on the coated samples and resulted in higher corrosion resistance for harder surfaces.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7162-7173
Number of pages12
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume36
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bipolar plate
  • Coating
  • Corrosion
  • Fuel cell
  • Hydroforming
  • Stamping

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