High corrosion resistance of reduced graphene oxide coated 316L stainless steel bipolar plate for proton exchange membrane fuel cell prepared by a facile method

Metallic bipolar plate suffers corrosion attack in the harsh proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) environments, which will lead to pronounced deterioration of the full cell output performance. Depositing a Graphene coating on the metallic bipolar plate surface is a promising approach to solving the problem. In this investigation, a facile method of graphene oxide (GO) adsorbing followed by H2 reducing is developed to prepare reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coating on the 316 L stainless steel bipolar plate. Benefiting from the good ion diffusion inhibition property of rGO nanosheets, the corrosion current density at the PEMFC cathodic working potential for the rGO coated 316 L is 0.115 μA cm−2, which is over 50 times lower than that for bare 316 L stainless steel (9.71 μA cm−2). After 24 h potentiostatic tests, rGO coated 316 L is able to maintain its high corrosion resistance (0.155 μA cm−2). GO adsorbing-H2 reducing is an effective approach to improving the corrosion resistance of 316 L stainless steel bipolar plate for PEMFC.