Sains Malaysiana 49(12)(2020): 3179-3188

http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2020-4912-29

Effects of the Synthesis Coating Parameters for Metal Bipolar Plates

(Kesan Parameter Salutan Sintesis untuk Plat Dwikutub Logam)

NUR FAWWAZ ASRI¹, TEUKU HUSAINI¹*, ABU BAKAR SULONG² & EDY HERIANTO MAJLAN¹

¹Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

²Centre for Materials Engineering and Smart Manufacturing, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

Received: 4 August 2020/Accepted: 11 September 2020

ABSTRACT

Metallic bipolar plates tendency to have high contact resistance, but also very susceptible to corrosion. This may decrease in the performance of fuel cells after several times of usage in fuel cell applications. Research has shown that after a metal plate was coated, the characteristic of materials dependent on the type, composition of the coating materials and the method. This study determines design of coating parameters including gas flow rate, DC power, and deposition time of coating for metal bipolar plates, which can be an indicator of the suitability of these plates for use as bipolar plates in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) applications. The aim of this research was to obtain a limitation range value of parameters that can be used as a standard for the use of metal plates as bipolar plates. The optimization parameters designed by Taguchi are used to determine the characteristics of interfacial contact resistance (ICR) and corrosion current density (I_corr). The integration of the Taguchi method with simulation can show the optimal design parameters of the coating on the various materials use. The optimization feature based on Taguchi is applied to ICR and I_corr values, to determine the feasibility of metal plates as potential bipolar plates in PEMFC.

Keywords: Coating bipolar plate; Cr‒C; metallic bipolar plates; Nb‒C; Taguchi

ABSTRAK

Kecenderungan plat dwikutub logam mempunyai rintangan sentuh dan kadar kakisan tinggi, namun mudah terdedah kepada kakisan. Penyelidikan ini telah menunjukkan bahawa setelah plat logam disalut, sifat elektrik dipengaruhi oleh jenis dan komposisi salutan yang digunakan, dan kaedah rawatan salutan yang dijalankan. Kajian ini menentukan parameter salutan merangkumi kadar aliran gas, kuasa DC dan masa pemendapan lapisan untuk plat dwikutub logam, untuk mencapai kesesuaian plat digunakan sebagai plat dwikutub dalam aplikasi PEMFC. Pengoptimuman melalui Taguchi dapat digunakan sebagai penentuan pencirian rintangan sentuh antara muka (ICR) dan ketumpatan arus kakisan (I_corr). Fokus kajian terhadap kesinambungan kaedah Taguchi dan simulasi menunjukkan reka bentuk parameter optimum salutan Nb‒C dan Cr‒C. Penyatuan kaedah Taguchi dengan simulasi rintangan kakisan dan ICR dapat menunjukkan parameter reka bentuk salutan yang optimum pada pelbagai bahan yang digunakan. Ciri pengoptimuman berdasarkan Taguchi diterapkan pada nilai ICR dan I_corr, untuk menentukan kemungkinan plat logam sebagai plat dwikutub berpotensi dalam PEMFC.

Kata kunci: Cr‒C; Nb‒C; plat dwikutub logam; plat dwikutub salutan; Taguchi

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*Corresponding author; email: t-husaini@ukm.edu.my