Effects of Thickness and Defects of DLC Coating Layer on Corrosion Resistance of Metallic Bipolar Plates of PEMFCs

DLC coatings have been widely applied in industrial fields that require high corrosion resistance due to their excellent mechanical characteristics and chemical stability. In this research, effects of DLC coating thickness and defects on corrosion resistance were investigated for application of metallic bipolar plates in polymer membrane electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFCs). Results revealed that a DLC coating thickness of 0.7 mu m could lead to a defect size reduction of about 75.9% compared to that of 0.3 mu m.As a result of potentiodynamic polarization experiments, the current density under a potential of 0.6 V was measured to be less than 1 mu A/cm(2),which was an excellent value. Inparticular, the delamination ratio and the decrease rate of maximum pitting depth were up to 84.8% and 63.3%, respectively, with an increase in the DLC coating thickness. These results demonstrate that DLC coating thickness and defects are factors that can affect corrosion resistance of DLC coating and its substrate.