A nanocrystalline zirconium carbide coating as a functional corrosion-resistant barrier for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell application

A ZrC nanocrystalline coating is engineered onto a Ti-6Al-4V substrate using a double cathode glow discharge technique in order to improve the corrosion resistance and long-term stability of this alloy. The new coating exhibits an extremely dense, homogeneous microstructure composed of equiaxed grains with an average grain size of ∼12 nm and is well adhered on the surface of the substrate. The corrosion behaviour of the coating is systematically investigated using various electrochemical methods, including potentiodynamic, potentiostatic polarizations and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), in a simulated polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) operating circumstances under different temperatures. The results show that with rising temperature, the corrosion potential (Ecorr) decreases and the corrosion current density (icorr) of the ZrC coated specimen increases, indicating that the corrosion resistance decreased with increasing temperature. However, at a given temperature, the ZrC-coated Ti-6Al-4V alloy has a higher Ecorr and lower icorr as compared to the bare substrate. The results of EIS measurements show that the values of the resistance for the ZrC coated Ti-6Al-4V alloy are three orders of magnitude larger than those of Ti-6A1-4V in the simulated PEMFC environment.