Research Progress of Bipolar Plates in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with hydrogen energy as the main energy, has the advantages of high energy conversion efficiency, environmental friendliness, and low working temperature, indicating the broad application prospects. However, PEMFC technology still faces severe challenges in cost and performance index. Bipolar plate is an important part of PEMFC, which accounts for a large proportion in its weight and cost, and has many irreplaceable functions. Three kinds of commonly used bipolar plate substrate materials (graphite material, composite material, and metal material) and the characteristics of several commonly used modification methods were summarized. And the stainless steel bipolar plate with more applications and low cost in recent years and its common modification methods were summarized emphatically.

Keywords

• proton exchange membrane fuel cell|bipolar plates|surface modification|corrosion resistance|conductivity