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<article-title>The Study of Electroplating Trivalent CR-C Coatings with Different Plating Time on Copper Alloy Bipolar Plates of Pem Fuel Cells</article-title>
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<author>Hsiang-Cheng Wang and Kung-Hsu Hou</author>

<aff>Chung Cheng Institute of Technology, National Defense University, Taiwan </aff>

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<title>ABSTRACT</title>
<p>Bipolar plates (BPPs) are one of the significant parts in the PEMFC systems, their properties such as electric conductivity and corrosion resistance will be a decisive factor for the quality of PEMFC systems. In this study, the trivalent Cr-C coatings were electroplated on copper alloy substrate for an application of BPPs because of their excellent electric conductivity and corrosion resistance. The corrosion behavior of the BPPs with and without Cr-C coatings was measured by liner polarization and potentiodynamic measurements. The SEM images showed that the thickness of the coatings were about 1.8 to 15.2 &#181;m and increased with raised plating time. The surface morphology at 10 minutes is more smooth, no cracks and pinholes happened and has high carbon content (44.17 at%) than which at 30 minutes and 60 minutes. Moreover, the polarization curve with different plating time (10, 30, 60 minutes) represented the coating prepared at 10A/dm<sup>2</sup> and 10 minutes possessing the best corrosion resistance (I<sub>corr</sub> = 3.4 &#215;10<sup><font face="symbol">-</font>7</sup>A/cm<sup>2</sup>). The contact resistance at 10 minutes is 7.6 m&#937;cm<sup>2</sup> which is superior to the others. The single cell test with BPP coated Cr-C was prepared at 10 minutes also showed the highest current density (about 898.0 mA/cm<sup>2</sup>) and power density (about 355.6 mW/cm<sup>2</sup>).  </p>
<p><italic>Keywords: </italic>Electroplating, Cr-C coating, Corrosion resistance, Bipolar plates, PEMFC. </p>
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<hpdf>P4RS279</hpdf>
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