Super-hydrophilic nanoporous electrically conductive coatings for PEM fuel cells
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsGayatri Vyas, Mahmoud Abd Elhamid, Youssef Mikhail, Thomas Trabold
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Abstract
A flow field plate or bipolar plate for a fuel cell that includes a conductive coating having formed nanopores that make the coating hydrophilic. Any suitable process can be used to form the nanopores in the coating. One process includes co-depositing a conductive material and a relatively unstable element on the plate, and then subsequently dissolving the element to remove it from the coating and create the nanopores. Another process includes using low energy ion beams for ion beam lithography to make the nanopores.
Claims46
A fuel cell comprising a flow field plate being made of a plate material, said flow field plate including a plurality of flow channels responsive to a reactant gas, said flow field plate further including a coating deposited on its outer surface, wherein an outer surface of the coating has been formed to have nanopores that operate to make the coating hydrophilic and wick water away.
The fuel cell according to claim 4 wherein the coating is selected from the group consisting of gold, platinum, ruthenium, rhodium and other noble metals.
A fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of fuel cell, each fuel including:
- a membrane;
- an anode side bipolar plate on one side of the membrane, said anode side bipolar plate including a coating deposited on its outer surface;
- and
- a cathode side bipolar plate on the other side of the membrane, said cathode side bipolar plate including a coating deposited on its outer surface, wherein an outer surface of the coatings have been formed to have nanopores that operate to make the coatings hydrophilic and wick water away.
A method for making a flow field plate for a fuel cell, said method comprising:
- providing a base structure being made of a plate material;
- depositing a coating on a surface of the base structure;
- and
- forming nanopores in the coating to make the coating hydrophilic and able to wick water away.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.