Thanks to their high conductivity, important gas tightness, good corrosion resistance, and low‐cost manufacturing pathways, stainless steels are considered as good candidates for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) bipolar plates materials. In this study, a proprietary alloy was identified as very promising: its initial electrical contact resistance (ECR) with the gas diffusion layer was low, while its corrosion resistance in simulated PEMFC environment was sufficient. Furthermore, the ECR did not increase dramatically during long‐term potentiostatic and potentiodynamic polarizations in simulated PEMFC cathode and anode environments. Finally, the stainless steel was successfully tested for 3,000 h in a commercial system using a 16‐cell stack, without detrimental cell voltage losses.
The effect of Mischmetal Ce/La on the high temperature oxidation of the heat resistant Ni80Cr20 alloys is studied in order to increase the alloys life time at high temperature. The oxidation kinetic follows the parabolic behavior for both alloys Ni80Cr20‐0 without reactive element and Ni80Cr20‐Ce/La with reactive elements Ce/La. The presence of Ce/La elements strongly decreases the oxidation kinetic. Oxide layer is found to be very adhesive on the alloy containing the reactive elements by scratch test adhesive energy measurement. These results are discussed and correlated with the oxide microstructure, mechanical properties of oxide such stress, and chemical composition of oxide layer.
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