Amorphous carbon coated stainless separator for PEFCs

An SUS316L stainless steel separator was coated with amorphous carbon by using an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma sputtering technique, and used in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). Characteristics of this carbon film were investigated with Raman spectroscopy and XPS. Quantitative depth profiles and chemical depth profiles of the deposited carbon layer were measured with GD-OES and XPS, respectively. The contact resistivity between a carbon paper and the carbon coated SUS316L steel was also measured. The performance of PEFC single cells assembled with carbon coated SUS316L separators, uncoated SUS316L separators, and conventional carbon separators were compared. The results revealed that an assembled PEFC having carbon coated SUS316L separators provided better performance than one having uncoated SUS316L, and the PEFC showed comparable performance to one having conventional carbon separators.