from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Stainless steels are considered to be a perspective candidate as a bipolar plate material for the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. The main reasons for using this material are properties such as low cost, high strength, electrical and heat conductivity and reasonable corrosion resistance. The aim of this study was to test several stainless steels in simulated environment (acidic and humid environment at 80°C) for application as bipolar plates. The experiments were carried out in an electrolyte of pH 3 with addition of 0.1 ppm HF. Potentiodynamic and potentiostatic polarization according to United States Deparments of Energy was used for electrochemical testing. Open circuit potential, polarization resistance, corrosion current density and corrosion rate from the Tafel extrapolation were determined on the basis of measured data. The suitability of using different types of stainless steels as a bipolar plate material for fuel cell has been evaluated.
Keywords: Stainless steels, corrosion, bipolar plates© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.