Development of Carbon Coated Stainless Separators and Their Polarization Performance for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell

Conductive amorphous carbon was coated on the stainless steel separators by using electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma sputtering technique. The carbon-coating reduced contact resistance between carbon paper and stainless steel substrate by two orders of magnitude. The carbon-coating also enhanced corrosion resistance of the stainless steels. Polarization performances of the polymer electrolyte fuel Cell (PEFC) using the carbon-coated SUS316L and SUS329J4L separators were comparable with that using the conventional carbon separator.