Optimization of Stainless Steel Composition for Fuel Cell Bipolar Plates

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2020.00131

Acta Metall Sin

2021, Vol. 57

Issue (5): 651-664 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2020.00131

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Optimization of Stainless Steel Composition for Fuel Cell Bipolar Plates

HUANG Yichuan¹, WANG Qing¹, ZHANG Shuang², DONG Chuang¹^,²(

), WU Aimin¹, LIN Guoqiang¹

^1.Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams, Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
^2.School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian 116028, China

Cite this article:

HUANG Yichuan, WANG Qing, ZHANG Shuang, DONG Chuang, WU Aimin, LIN Guoqiang. Optimization of Stainless Steel Composition for Fuel Cell Bipolar Plates. Acta Metall Sin, 2021, 57(5): 651-664.

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Abstract

316 stainless steel is the first choice for bipolar plate material in fuel cells; however, it suffers from passivation-induced corrosion and conductivity deficiencies. In this work, Fe-Cr-Ni alloy was refined using the cluster-plus-glue-atom model to obtain stainless steels with balanced corrosion and electrical performances. For austenite 316L stainless steel, the unit is described as a 16-atom cluster formula [Ni-Fe₁₁Ni₁]Cr₃. By fixing the three atoms of a glue, Cr₃ is required to achieve sufficient corrosion resistance, and new compositions with varying Ni contents are designed following [Ni-Fe_13-_xNi_x_-1]Cr₃ = Fe_13-_xNi_xCr₃ (x = 1-5). The designed alloys were arc melted at least five times, copper-mold suction casted into 10-mm cylindrical rods under an argon atmosphere, homogenized at 1150^oC for 2 h, and water quenched. Under the simulated bipolar plate service environment (0.5 mol/L H₂SO₄ + 2 × 10^-6 HF aqueous solution), as the Ni content increases, the self-corrosion current density decreases to 1.10 and 0.29 μA/cm² after acid passivation and electrochemical nitridation, respectively. These values are well below compared to the commercial 316L stainless steel (7.51 and 0.47 μA/cm²) and close to the current industry target (0.5 μA/cm²) for bipolar plates. At the same time, the contact electrical resistance (under 0.064 MPa pressure) decreases to 0.98 and 1.03 Ω·cm² after acid passivation and electrochemical nitridation, respectively, which is superior to the 316L stainless steel (1.1 Ω·cm²). Thus, optimal alloy composition [Ni-Fe₁₀Ni₂]Cr₃ can be used as the right substrate material of the bipolar plate instead of the 316L stainless steel. The electrochemical nitridation method is the proper surface treatment method for stainless steel bipolar plates, and this method improves the alloy's corrosion resistance while maintaining the same level of contact resistance.

Key words: stainless steel bipolar plate acid passivation electrochemical nitridation corrosion resistance interfacial contact resistance passivation film

Received: 27 April 2020

ZTFLH:

TM911.4

Fund: National Key Research and Development Program of China(2016YFB0701401)

About author: DONG Chuang, professor, Tel: (0411)84707930-11, E-mail: dong@dlut.edu.cn

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	Yichuan HUANG
	Qing WANG
	Shuang ZHANG
	Chuang DONG
	Aimin WU
	Guoqiang LIN

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2020.00131 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2021/V57/I5/651

Fig.1 Cuboctahedral cluster in austenite

Table 1 Fe-Cr-Ni alloys designed using the cluster [Ni-Fe_13-_xNi_x_-1]Cr₃, together with the composition and cluster formula of the reference 316L alloy

Fig.2 Designed alloys and 316L in Schaeffler diagram (A—austenite, F—ferrite, M—martensite; (M)—mass fraction of element M)

Fig.3 XRD spectra of the designed alloys after solution (1150^oC, 2 h) and water-quenching treatment

Fig.4 OM images of the designed alloys after solution and water-quenching treatment

Fig.5 Hardness of the the designed alloy and reference alloy (316L stainless steel) vs their Ni equivalents

Fig.6 Open circuit potential (E_ocp)-time (t) curves of the designed and reference alloys before and after passivation treatment

Fig.7 Dynamic potential polarization curves of the designed and reference alloys before (a) and after (b) acid passivation treatment in 0.5 mol/L H₂SO₄ + 2 × 10^-6 HF aqueous solution (i—corrosion current density, E—potential)

Table 2 Self-corrosion potential (E_corr) and self-corrosion current density (i_corr) of the designed and reference alloys before and after the acid passivation

Fig.8 E_corr and i_corr of the designed and reference alloys after passivation vs their Ni equivalents

Fig.9 Mott-Schottky curves of the designed and reference alloys after acid passivation (C_sc—space-charge capacitance)

Fig.10 Carrier concentrations of the designed and reference alloys after acid passivation vs their Ni equivalents (N_d—donor density, N_a—acceptor density)

Table 3 Carrier concentrations of the designed alloys after acid passivation, with N_d and N_a fitted from zones ② and ③ in Fig.9, respectively

Table 4 Space charge layer thickness (δ_sc) of the designed and reference alloys after acid passivation

Fig.11 Open circuit potential-time curves of the designed and reference alloys before and after electrochemical nitridation

Fig.12 Dynamic potential polarization curves of the designed and reference alloys before (a) and after (b) electrochemical nitridation in 0.5 mol/L H₂SO₄ + 2 × 10^-6 HF aqueous solution

Table 5 E_corr and i_corr of the designed and reference alloys before and after electrochemical nitridation

Fig.13 E_corr and i_corr of alloys after electrochemical nitridation vs their Ni equivalents

Fig.14 Mott-Schottky curves of alloys after electrochemical nitridation

Table 6 Carrier concentrations of the designed alloys after electrochemical nitridation

Table 7 δ_sc of the designed and reference alloys after electrochemical nitridation

Table 8 Interfacial contact resistance (ICR) of the designed and reference alloys after acid passivation and electrochemical nitridation

Fig.15 ICR of alloys after acid passivation vs their Ni equivalents

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