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Title: Protective nitride formation on stainless steel alloys for proton exchange membrane fuel cell bipolar plates

Abstract

Gas nitridation has shown excellent promise to form dense, electrically conductive and corrosion-resistant Cr-nitride surface layers on Ni-Cr base alloys for use as proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) bipolar plates. Due to the high cost of nickel, Fe-base bipolar plate alloys are needed to meet the cost targets for many PEMFC applications. Unfortunately, nitridation of Fe-base stainless steel alloys typically leads to internal Cr-nitride precipitation rather than the desired protective surface nitride layer formation, due to the high permeability of nitrogen in these alloys. This paper reports the finding that it is possible to form a continuous, protective Cr-nitride (CrN and Cr{sub 2}N) surface layer through nitridation of Fe-base stainless steel alloys. The key to form a protective Cr-nitride surface layer was found to be the initial formation of oxide during nitridation, which prevented the internal nitridation typically observed for these alloys, and resulted in external Cr-nitride layer formation. The addition of V to the alloy, which resulted in the initial formation of V{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3}, was found to enhance this effect, by making the initially formed oxide more amenable to subsequent nitridation. The Cr-nitride surface layer formed on model V-modified Fe-27Cr alloys exhibited excellent corrosion resistancemore » and low interfacial contact resistance under simulated PEMFC bipolar plate conditions.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. ORNL
  2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). High Temperature Materials Lab. (HTML); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Shared Research Equipment Collaborative Research Center
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
978784
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Journal of Power Sources
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 174; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0378-7753
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; ALLOYS; CORROSION RESISTANCE; NICKEL; NITRIDATION; NITRIDES; NITROGEN; OXIDES; PERMEABILITY; PLATES; PRECIPITATION; PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELLS; STAINLESS STEELS; TARGETS

Citation Formats

Yang, Bing, Brady, Michael P, Wang, Heli, Turner, John, More, Karren Leslie, Young, David J, Tortorelli, Peter F, Payzant, E Andrew, and Walker, Larry R. Protective nitride formation on stainless steel alloys for proton exchange membrane fuel cell bipolar plates. United States: N. p., 2007. Web. doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.08.106.
Yang, Bing, Brady, Michael P, Wang, Heli, Turner, John, More, Karren Leslie, Young, David J, Tortorelli, Peter F, Payzant, E Andrew, & Walker, Larry R. Protective nitride formation on stainless steel alloys for proton exchange membrane fuel cell bipolar plates. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.08.106
Yang, Bing, Brady, Michael P, Wang, Heli, Turner, John, More, Karren Leslie, Young, David J, Tortorelli, Peter F, Payzant, E Andrew, and Walker, Larry R. 2007. "Protective nitride formation on stainless steel alloys for proton exchange membrane fuel cell bipolar plates". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.08.106.
@article{osti_978784,
title = {Protective nitride formation on stainless steel alloys for proton exchange membrane fuel cell bipolar plates},
author = {Yang, Bing and Brady, Michael P and Wang, Heli and Turner, John and More, Karren Leslie and Young, David J and Tortorelli, Peter F and Payzant, E Andrew and Walker, Larry R},
abstractNote = {Gas nitridation has shown excellent promise to form dense, electrically conductive and corrosion-resistant Cr-nitride surface layers on Ni-Cr base alloys for use as proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) bipolar plates. Due to the high cost of nickel, Fe-base bipolar plate alloys are needed to meet the cost targets for many PEMFC applications. Unfortunately, nitridation of Fe-base stainless steel alloys typically leads to internal Cr-nitride precipitation rather than the desired protective surface nitride layer formation, due to the high permeability of nitrogen in these alloys. This paper reports the finding that it is possible to form a continuous, protective Cr-nitride (CrN and Cr{sub 2}N) surface layer through nitridation of Fe-base stainless steel alloys. The key to form a protective Cr-nitride surface layer was found to be the initial formation of oxide during nitridation, which prevented the internal nitridation typically observed for these alloys, and resulted in external Cr-nitride layer formation. The addition of V to the alloy, which resulted in the initial formation of V{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3}, was found to enhance this effect, by making the initially formed oxide more amenable to subsequent nitridation. The Cr-nitride surface layer formed on model V-modified Fe-27Cr alloys exhibited excellent corrosion resistance and low interfacial contact resistance under simulated PEMFC bipolar plate conditions.},
doi = {10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.08.106},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/978784}, journal = {Journal of Power Sources},
issn = {0378-7753},
number = 1,
volume = 174,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2007},
month = {Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2007}
}