Corrosion resistance in simulated DMFC environment of plasma electrolytic oxidation coating prepared on aluminum alloy

This paper aims to provide a novel substrate for the fabrication of micro passive direct methanol fuel cells. Aluminum alloy treated by plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) is electrically non-conductive and corrosion resistant, and thus it can act as the substrate materials of fuel cells. For this application, the corrosion problem of PEO coating in DMFC electrolytic environment that mainly contains H+ and F− must be seriously handled for that the corrosive products can poison catalyst and decrease proton conductivity. In this paper, PEO coating was prepared on aluminum alloy LY12 by an AC power supply in sodium silicate, and its corrosion resistance in the simulated DMFC environment was evaluated by potentiodynamic scan and EIS. The results indicate that the PEO coating shows excellent corrosion resistance in the simulated DMFC environment.