High-performance amorphous carbon films on titanium foils: Toward industrial preparation of coated metallic bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Abstract

The proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) composed of amorphous carbon (a-C) film surface modified metal bipolar plates (BPP) have been widely used as a new generation power source for hydrogen energy applications. However, one of the main challenges limiting the industrial deployment of a-C coated BPP remains the low deposition rate. In this study, arc ion plating with a deposition rate exceeding 100 nm/min was used to rapidly deposit a-C films with excellent performance on the surface of titanium foil (TA1). The experimental results show that the ICR of a-C coated TA1 decreases to 1.125 mΩ cm2 at a pressure of 1.4 MPa and the corrosion current density is about 3.37 × 10−9 A cm−2. In addition, industrially useable BPPs with large-sized coated a-C films has been successfully deposited. This work provides valuable reference for the industrial preparation of low-cost a-C film coating metal BPP for PEMFCs.