CORE - Innovative Corrosion Resistant Coatings for Bipolar Plates

The methodology that will be implemented to examine the hypothesis and mitigate the risks associated to the research is showed in the figure below. The initial efforts will be focused on the achievement of suitable electrical conductivity and in identifying a proper technique to deposit the coating on the BPP in order to lower the contact resistance to acceptable values.

During this first phase, the emphasis will be placed on the proof of concept rather than on the cost-effectiveness of the produced coating. Subsequently, the coated BPP will be tested in fuel cell environment (milder conditions compared to electrolysers) to validate the proof of concept.

Simultaneously, a cost analysis will assess the type of materials (polymers and particle types) and production methods required to achieve a cost-effective coating of the BPP. This is expected to steer the second phase of the fabrication, where the focus will be set on the achievement of cost-competitiveness, as well as on the feasibility of using the proposed approach to fabricate coatings suitable for electrolysers conditions.