Effects of low-cost salt bath nitrification method on the stainless steel as bipolar plates for PEMFC

摘要

Stainless steel has attracted interest as a bipolar plate material for PEMFC due to its excellent mechanical properties and low cost. However, stainless steel is the worse corrosive under PEMFC operating condition. So, the difficult surface treatment technologies and process costs is very expensive. In this study, salt bath nitrification with pre-oxidation of stainless steel was performed in order to improve both the corrosion resistance and the electrical conductivity.