Investigating corrosion properties and contact resistance of current collector plates with three-layer TiN/TiN-TiCN/TiN coating for use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
Majid Sedighi 1
Mohammad Barzegari 1
Mojtaba Ghadimi 2
1 Northern Research center for Science and Technology, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Iran
2 Fuel Cell Technology Research Laboratory, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Fereydunkenar
10.22034/amnc.2024.456026.1265
Abstract
According to the desired properties, copper and austenitic stainless steel can be suitable options for the material of current collector plates in fuel cells. Different coatings are used to increase the corrosion resistance and reduce the contact resistance in the flow collector plates of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell. In this research, current collector plates with a three-layer coating of TiN/TiN-TiCN/TiN were developed on copper and stainless steel substrates with different thicknesses, and their corrosion resistance, contact resistance, and surface properties were compared with gold coating. took Corrosion resistance of applied coatings was checked using TOEFL test. In order to check the contact resistance of coated and uncoated samples, surface contact resistance (ICR) test was used. The surface morphology of the samples was also examined using a scanning electron microscope. The obtained results showed that the three-layer coating of TiN/TiN-TiCN/TiN on the surface of stainless steel increases the corrosion resistance from the corrosion current density of 5.28 to 0.27 microamps/cm2. The ICR test showed that the contact resistance of the three-layer TiN/TiN-TiCN/TiN coating at a contact pressure of 1.4 MPa was equal to 27.26 milliohms per square centimeter, which is much lower than that of uncoated steel, which is 52.35 milliohms per square centimeter. Therefore, this type of coating will be a suitable option for fuel cell use due to its high corrosion resistance and low contact resistance.
Keywords
Proton exchange membrane fuel cell
coating
sputtering
corrosion
contact resistance
Subjects