Corrosion resistance and electrical properties of carbon/chromium-titanium-nitride multilayer coatings on stainless steel

High electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance are central to advances in wider application of metallic bipolar plates in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). In this study, C/Cr-Ti-N multilayer coatings are deposited by physical vapor deposition and the effect of Cr:Ti ratio on the corrosion resistance and interfacial contact resistance (ICR) are systematically investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) result shows that the carbon layer is compact and uniform. Excellent corrosion resistance of 0.127 μA cm−2 current density at operating voltage in PEMFC cathode environment and low ICR of 2.03 mΩ-cm2 at compaction force of 150 N cm−2 are achieved when Cr:Ti ratio is 2:4 and 3:3, respectively. The significant enhancement in surface conductivity is probably because that the current comes from carbon paper is homogenized by two electrically conductive layers and flows to the passive film with much more contact area. After polarization, ICR increase to 3.07 mΩ-cm2 and 3.02 mΩ-cm2 in the simulated PEMFC cathode and anode environment, respectively. However, the Raman spectroscopy results disclose that the bonding type of top carbon film before and after polarization shows little difference. The results indicate that C/Cr-Ti-N multilayer coating with Cr:Ti ratio of 2:4 achieves the optimal composition.