Fuel cell separator, fuel cell stack, fuel cell vehicle, and method of manufacturing fuel cell separator
AssigneeNissan Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsNoriko Uchiyama, Nobutaka Chiba, Makoto Kano
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Abstract
A fuel cell separator of the present invention includes: a base material which is made of transition metal or an alloy of transition metal and has a path for fuel or an oxidant; and a nitride layer which is provided from a surface of the base material towards an inside thereof, contacts a single cell of a fuel cell, and has a cubic crystal structure. The fuel cell separator has excellent corrosion resistance in a strong acid atmosphere and low contact resistance with a carbon paper that configures a gas diffusion layer.
Claims23
A fuel cell separator, comprising:
- a base material which comprises transition metal or an alloy of transition metal and has a path for fuel or an oxidant;
- and
- a nitride layer which is provided from a surface of the base material towards an inside thereof, contacts a single cell of a fuel cell, and comprises a cubic crystal structure.
A fuel cell stack, comprising:
- a fuel cell separator comprising:
- a base material which comprises transition metal or an alloy of transition metal and has a path for fuel or an oxidant;
- and a nitride layer which is provided from a surface of the base material towards an inside thereof, contacts a single cell of a fuel cell, and comprises a cubic crystal structure.
A fuel cell vehicle, comprising:
- a fuel cell stack comprising a fuel cell separator comprising:
- a base material which comprises transition metal or an alloy of transition metal and has a path for fuel or an oxidant;
- and a nitride layer which is provided from a surface of the base material towards an inside thereof, contacts a single cell of a fuel cell, and comprises a cubic crystal structure.
A method of manufacturing a fuel cell separator, comprising:
- preparing a base material which comprises transition metal or an alloy of transition metal and has a path for fuel or an oxidant;
- and
- nitriding a surface of the base material at temperature of 590 degrees centigrade or lower to form a nitride layer having a M4N-type crystal structure where a nitrogen atom is located in an octahedral gap at a center of a unit cell of a face-centered cubic lattice formed of at least one kind of metal atom selected from the group consisting of iron, chromium, nickel and molybdenum, on the surface of the base material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.