SET Proceedings 2978-4387 Caravel Press 10.65582/set.2008.175 2008.175 Stainless steel bipolar plates for PEMFC application YunYoung-Hoon yunh2@dsu.ac.kr JeonGwang-Yeon ChaIn-Su ChoiJeong-Sik KimDong-Mook JangGil-Soo JungJin-Ho thank70@naver.com Dept. of Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Tech., Dongshin University, Jeonnam Division of Architectural Eng., Dongshin University, Jeonnam, Korea Dept. of Physics, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 24082008 7 1 978-1-995850-08-5 1279 1285 24 August 2008 © 2008 Copyright WSSET 2008

The CrN (Cr2N)-chromium-ITO (indium-tin oxide) system and the gold-titanium system were deposited on the stainless steel 316 and 304 plates by a sputtering method and an E-beam method, respectively. The XRD patterns of the stainless steel plates deposited showed the crystalline phase of a typical indium-tin oxide, metallic phases such as chromium, gold and the metal substrate as well as external chromium nitride films. The nitride films were composed of two metal nitride phases of CrN and Cr2N compounds. Surface morphologies of the stainless steel bipolar plates deposited were observed by AFM and FE-SEM. The stainless steel plates deposited with CrN (Cr2N)-chromium-ITO system represented the surface microstructural morphology of the fine columnar grains of 10nm diameter and 60nm length. The external gold films formed on the stainless steel plates showed microstructure of grains of about 100nm diameter. The grain size of the external surface of the stainless steel plates deposited with gold-titanium system increased with the gold film thickness. The electrical resistance and water contact angle of the stainless steel bipolar plates covered with multi-layered coatings were examined with the thickness of ITO film or external gold film.

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