• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.161-166
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• 2008

The multi-films of a metallic film and a transparent conducting oxide (TCO, indium-tin oxide, ITO) film were formed on the stainless steel 316 and 304 plates by a sputtering method and an E-beam method and then the external metallic region of the stainless steel bipolar plates was converted into the metal nitride films through an annealing process. The multi-film formed on the stainless steel bipolar plates showed the XRD patterns of the typical indium-tin oxide, the metallic phase and the metal substrate and the external nitride film. The XRD pattern of the thin film on the bipolar plates modified showed two metal nitride phases of CrN and $Cr_2N$ compound. Surface microstructural morphology of the multi-film deposited bipolar plates was observed by AFM and FE-SEM. The metal nitride film formed on the stainless steel bipolar plates represented a microstructural morphology of fine columnar grains with 10 nm diameter and 60nm length in FE-SEM images. The electrical resistivity of the stainless steel bipolar plates modified was evaluated.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.646-648
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• 2008

The multi-films of a metallic film and a transparent conducting oxide (TCO, indium-tin oxide, ITO) film were formed on the stainless steel 316 and 304 plates by a sputtering method and an E-beam method and then the external metallic region of the stainless steel bipolar plates was converted into the metal nitride films through an annealing process. The multi-film formed on the stainless steel bipolar plates showed the XRD patterns of the typical indium-tin oxide, the metallic phase and the metal substrate and the external nitride film. The XRD pattern of the thin film on the bipolar plates modified showed two metal nitride phases of CrN and $Cr_2N$ compound. Surface microstructural morphology of the multi-film deposited bipolar plates was observed by AFM and FE-SEM. The electrical resistivity of the stainless steel bipolar plates modified was evaluated.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.90.2-90.2
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• 2010

The coated metallic bipolar plates are getting attractive due to their good feasibility of mass production, low contact resistance, high electrical/thermal conductivity, low gas permeability and good mechanical strength comparing with graphite materials. Yet, metallic bipolar plates for polymer electrolyte membrane(PEM) fuel cells typically require coatings for corrosion protection. Other requirements for the corrosion protective coatings include low electrical contact resistance between metallic bipolar plate and gas diffusion layer, good mechanical robustness, low mechanical and fabrication cost. The authors have evaluated a number of protective coatings deposited on stainless steel substrate by electroplating. The coated metallic bipolar plates are investigated with an electrochemical polarization tests, salt dipping tests, adhesion tests for corrosion resistance and then the contact resistance was measured. The results showed that the selective samples electroplated with optimized method, satisfied the DOE target for corrosion resistance and contact resistance, and also were very stabilized in the typical fuel cell environments in the long-term.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.492-501
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• 2017

A 900 W scale direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack is designed and fabricated for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications. To meet the volume and weight requirements, metallic bipolar plates are applied to the DMFC stack for the first time wherein POS470FC was chosen as bipolar plate material. To ensure good robustness of the metallic bipolar plate based DMFC stack, finite element method based simulations are conducted using a commercial ANSYS Fluent software. The stress buildup and deformation characteristics on bipolar plates and end plates are analyzed in details. The present DMFC stack exhibits the performance of 1,130 W at 32 V and 35.3 A, clearly demonstrating that it could successfully operate for UAVs requiring around 1,000 W of power.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.435-450
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• 2021

The interest in eco-friendly energy is increasing, and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is attracting attention as alternative power sources. Research on metallic bipolar plates, a fuel cell component, is being actively conducted. However, since the operating conditions of PEMFC, in which sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) and hydrofluoric acid (HF) are mixed, are strong acidity, the durability of the metallic bipolar plate is very important. In this research, the electrochemical characteristics and corrosion damage behavior of 316L stainless steel, a material for metallic bipolar plates, were analyzed through potentiostatic corrosion tests with test times and chloride concentrations. As the test times and chloride concentrations increased, the current density and corrosion damage increased. As a result of observation with scanning electron microscope(SEM) and 3D microscope, both the depth and width of pitting corrosion increased with increases in test times and chloride concentrations. In particular, the pitting corrosion damage depth at test conditions of 6 hours and 1000 ppm chloride increased the most. The growth of the pitting corrosion damage was not directly proportional to time and increased significantly after a certain period.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.1031-1037
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• 2010

This paper proposed lightweight aluminum bipolar plates as an alternative for conventional graphite bipolar plates in fuel cell systems used as a power source for small reconnaissance UAVs. Since bipolar plates occupy more than 80% of the total weight of the fuel cell system, lightweight aluminum bipolar plates can improve the overall payload and flight time of the fuel cell UAV. The aluminum and graphite bipolar plates were fabricated to compare the performance of each of them. A 15% higher performance per weight was obtained from aluminum bipolar plates than the graphite bipolar plates. Also, the performance of a single cell using aluminum bipolar plates was evaluated under various operating conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.221-232
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• 2017

In this study, bipolar plates in fuel cells are formed using rubber forming process. The effects of important parameters in rubber forming such as hardness and thickness of rubber pad, speed and pressure of punch that compress blank, and physical property of materials on the channel depth were analyzed. In the soft material sheet Al1050, deeper channels are formed than in materials STS304 and Ti-G5. Formed channel depth was increased when hardness of rubber pad was lower, thickness of rubber pad was high, and speed and pressure of punch were high. It was found the deepest channel was achieved when forming process condition was set with punch speed and pressure at 30 mm/s and 55 MPa, respectively using rubber pad having hardness Shore A 20 and thickness 60 mm. The channel depths of bipolar plates formed with Al1050, STS304 and Ti-G5 under the above process condition were 0.453, 0.307, and 0.270 mm, respectively. There were no defects such as wrinkle, distortion, and crack found from formed bipolar plates.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.5-12
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• 2012

The weight of the bipolar plate is one of the crucial aspects of improving power density in PEMFC stacks. Aluminum alloys have good mechanical properties such as density, electrical resistivity, and thermal conductivity. Furthermore, using aluminum in a bipolar plate instead of graphite reduces the bipolar plate cost and makes machining easier. Therefore in this study, an aluminum alloy was selected as the appropriate material for a bipolar plate. Results from feasibility experiments with the aim of developing fuel cells consisting of Al bipolar plates with multiple channels are presented. Dynamic loading was applied and the formability of micro channels was estimated as a function of punch pressure and die radius. Sheets of Al5052 with a thickness of 0.3mm were used. For a die radius of 0.1mm the formability was optimized with a sine wave dynamic load of 90kN at maximum pressure and 5 cycles of a sine wave punch travel. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed manufacturing technique for producing bipolar plates.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.89-92
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• 2007

The metallic bipolar plate in PEMFC is widely used for automotive driving because of its advantages, i) high strength, ii) high chemical stability, iii) low gas permeability and iv) applicability to mass production. Especially, the metallic bipolar plate which is manufactured with the sheet metal stamping process can be applied in automotive PEMFC with less volume and weight because of its thin thickness but the formability and springback problems arise in real manufacturing process. The assessment for formability and springback of metallic bipolar plate should be performed before making stamping die sets. In this work, the methodology for determining the allowable draft angle of flow passage is introduced by using finite element analysis. In analysis results, as the draft angle of flow passage increase, the major strain and thinning is increase with exponential function. The allowable draft angle without fracture is presented by fitting the results. Additionally, the staking results with manufactured metallic bipolar plates by stamping process is presented.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.235-245
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• 2024

DLC coatings have been widely applied in industrial fields that require high corrosion resistance due to their excellent mechanical characteristics and chemical stability. In this research, effects of DLC coating thickness and defects on corrosion resistance were investigated for application of metallic bipolar plates in polymer membrane electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFCs). Results revealed that a DLC coating thickness of 0.7 ㎛ could lead to a defect size reduction of about 75.9% compared to that of 0.3 ㎛.As a result of potentiodynamic polarization experiments, the current density under a potential of 0.6 V was measured to be less than 1 ㎂/cm²,which was an excellent value. Inparticular, the delamination ratio and the decrease rate of maximum pitting depth were up to 84.8% and 63.3%, respectively, with an increase in the DLC coating thickness. These results demonstrate that DLC coating thickness and defects are factors that can affect corrosion resistance of DLC coating and its substrate.