Strategy of alternating bias voltage on corrosion resistance and interfacial conductivity enhancement of TiCx/a-C coatings on metallic bipolar plates in PEMFCs

Weixin Zhang, Peiyun Yi, Linfa Peng and Xinmin Lai

Energy, 2018, vol. 162, issue C, 933-943

Abstract: Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are deemed to be a promising renewable energy for variety of applications. However, metallic bipolar plates, one of key components in PEMFCs, still suffer from severe corrosion and degradation of interfacial conductivity under the humid and acid operating condition. Herein we proposed a novel strategy to enhance interfacial conductivity and corrosion resistance of TiCx/a-C coatings for metallic bipolar plates by alternating substrate bias voltage during the deposition process. The effects of the alternating substrate bias voltage strategy on the composition and morphology of the multilayered TiCx/a-C coatings had been explored. Both the corrosion resistance and the interfacial conductivity of the multilayered TiCx/a-C coatings were improved with more alternating periods of bias voltage. The effects of the enhanced performance had been discussed, and it was found that the alternating bias voltage strategy will restrain the columnar structures in the a-C layers and promote the generation of sp2-rich clusters on the surface. This versatile strategy based on moderately alternating cycles of substrate bias voltage exhibits great potential in many applications.

Keywords: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell; Bipolar plate; Amorphous carbon; Bias voltage; Corrosion resistance; Interfacial contact resistance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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/S0360544218316359
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:162:y:2018:i:c:p:933-943

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.08.099

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 ().