Effects of porous flow field type separators using sintered Ni-based alloy powders on interfacial contact resistances and fuel cell performances

Tetsuro Kariya, Katsu Yanagimoto, Hiroshi Funakubo and Toshio Shudo

Energy, 2015, vol. 87, issue C, 134-141

Abstract: The novel separators with a porous flow field using sintered corrosion resistant Ni-base alloy C276 (Ni–16Cr–16Mo–5Fe–4W mass%) powders or SUS316L (Fe–17Cr–12Ni–2Mo mass%) powders are investigated for proton exchange membrane fuel cells to enhance power density, which is one of the most important challenges for the widespread use of fuel cells. The developed separator with C276 powders demonstrated low ICRs (interfacial contact resistance) less than 10 mΩ cm2 between separators and GDLs (gas diffusion layers), and it extensively enhanced power density by 90% higher than a conventional graphite separator. This is due to the superior adherence mechanism between the convex surfaces of the spherical powders and porous GDLs as well as the Ni concentration in passive oxide films in powder surfaces. Furthermore, this developed separator shows potential for using without an expensive conductive coating such as Au coating, which has been usually employed to lower ICRs for metallic separators with passive oxide films. In addition, the amount of eluted Cr, which could deteriorate catalyst and cell performance, from sintered C276 powders in a 1 mass% sulfuric acid aqueous solution is reduced by approximately 82% than SUS316L powders.

Keywords: Fuel cell; Separator; Bipolar plate; Alloy powder; Porous flow field; Interfacial contact resistance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544215005150
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:87:y:2015:i:c:p:134-141

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.04.060

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().