Ni-based amorphous alloy-coating for bipolar plate of PEM fuel cell by electrochemical plating

In this study, the Ni-Cr-P amorphous alloy-coated bipolar plates were produced by electro-plating on the Cu base plates with a flow field. The power generation tests of a single fuel cell with those Ni-Cr-P bipolar plates were conducted at 353 K. It was found that the single fuel cell with those Ni-Cr-P bipolar plates showed excellent I-V performance as well as that with the carbon graphite bipolar plates. It was also found that the single cell with those Ni-Cr-P bipolar plates showed better I-V performance than that with the Ni-P amorphous alloy-coated bipolar plates. Furthermore, the long-time operation test was conducted for 440 h with those Ni-Cr-P bipolar plates at the constant current density of 200 mA·cm−2. As a result, it was found that the cell voltage gradually decreased at the beginning of the measurement before 300 h and then the voltage was kept constant after 300 h.