Corrosion behavior of TiN-coated stainless steel as bipolar plate for proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Abstract Stainless steel is a potential material to be used as the bipolar plate for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEFC) because of its suitable physical and mechanical properties. Several coating techniques have been applied to improve its corrosion resistance. But seldom study is focused on the microstructure evolution with corrosion. In the present study, the use of TiN-coated stainless steel as the bipolar plate is evaluated. Two surface coating techniques, pulsed bias arc ion plating (PBAIP) and magnetron sputtering (MS), are adoped to prepare the TiN-coated stainless steel. Their corrosion resistances and electrical conductivities of the coated substrates are evaluated. The performance shows strong dependance on microstructural characteristics. The corrosion of SS304/Ti 2 N/TiN prepared by MS mainly occurs on the grain boundary. The corrosion of SS304/TiN prepared by PBAIP mainly takes place from the large particles on the coating. The Ti 2 N/TiN multilayer coating provides superb corrosion protective layer for stainless steel. Both the TiN and Ti 2 N/TiN coatings provide low contact resistance.

[1]  Frano Barbir,et al.  PEM Fuel Cells , 2006 .

[2]  Ying Liu,et al.  Estimation of contact resistance in proton exchange membrane fuel cells , 2006 .

[3]  J. Pan,et al.  Duplex TiN coatings deposited by arc plating for increased corrosion resistance of stainless steel substrates , 1999 .

[4]  M. Smit,et al.  Study of electrodeposited polypyrrole coatings for the corrosion protection of stainless steel bipolar plates for the PEM fuel cell , 2006 .

[5]  D. Mahajan,et al.  Metal bipolar plates for PEM fuel cell—A review , 2007 .

[6]  Dae-Geun Nam,et al.  Thermal nitridation of chromium electroplated AISI316L stainless steel for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell bipolar plate , 2007 .

[7]  EunAe Cho,et al.  Performance of a 1 kW-class PEMFC stack using TiN-coated 316 stainless steel bipolar plates , 2005 .

[8]  Karren L. More,et al.  Preferential thermal nitridation to form pin-hole free Cr-nitrides to protect proton exchange membrane fuel cell metallic bipolar plates , 2004 .

[9]  Ho Jang,et al.  Corrosion resistance of chromized 316L stainless steel for PEMFC bipolar plates , 2008 .

[10]  F. Zaza,et al.  Bipolar plate materials for PEMFCs: A conductivity and stability study , 2008 .

[11]  C. Dong,et al.  Preparation of TiN films by arc ion plating using dc and pulsed biases , 2004 .

[12]  Yan Wang,et al.  An investigation into TiN-coated 316L stainless steel as a bipolar plate material for PEM fuel cells , 2007 .

[13]  Heli Wang,et al.  Stainless steel as bipolar plate material for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells , 2003 .

[14]  Bing Yang,et al.  Growth of Cr-Nitrides on commercial Ni–Cr and Fe–Cr base alloys to protect PEMFC bipolar plates , 2007 .

[15]  Juncai Sun,et al.  Effect of plasma nitriding on behavior of austenitic stainless steel 304L bipolar plate in proton exchange membrane fuel cell , 2007 .

[16]  Hitoshi Yashiro,et al.  Corrosion behavior of austenitic stainless steels as a function of pH for use as bipolar plates in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells , 2008 .

[17]  Suzhen Luo,et al.  Corrosion behavior of TiN coated type 316 stainless steel in simulated PEMFC environments , 2004 .