An Investigation on Metallic Bipolar Plate Corrosion in Simulated Anode and Cathode Environments of PEM Fuel Cells using Potential-pH Diagrams

An Investigation on Metallic Bipolar Plate Corrosion in Simulated Anode and Cathode Environments of PEM Fuel Cells using Potential-pH Diagrams

Blog Article

In order to reduce the price of the bipolar plates, many researchers have been developing metallic bipolar plates to substitute for the non-porous graphite bipolar plates.However, metallic bipolar plates corrode in the PEMFC environments and resultant metal ions can affect the conductivity of the membrane, and the performance of the fuel cell stack.In this Enamel Pin study, the corrosion behaviors of three types of metallic materials (6061 aluminum alloy, A36 steel and Grade 2 titanium) in HYSSOP simulated anode and cathode environments of PEMFCs is analyzed using potential-pH diagrams.Potentiostatic electrochemical testing results and SEM metallography were used to verify the predictions of the potential-pH diagram.The results show that potential-pH diagrams can be used to predict the corrosion of these metals in the PEMFC conditions.