Multilayer graphene for long-term corrosion protection of stainless steel bipolar plates for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Abstract Motivated by similar investigations recently published (Pu et al., 2015), we report a comparative corrosion study of three sets of samples relevant as bipolar plates for polymer electrolyte fuel cells: stainless steel, stainless steel with a nickel seed layer (Ni/SS) and stainless steel with Ni seed layer coated by a multi-layered graphene thin film (G/Ni/SS). The graphene film, synthesized by chemical vapour deposition (CVD), has a moderate amount of defects according to Raman spectroscopy. Short/medium-term corrosion test shows no significant advantage of using G/Ni/SS rather than Ni/SS, both samples exhibiting a similar trend, thus questioning the short-term positive effect of graphene coatings. However, partial immersion in boiling seawater for three weeks reveals a clear superiority of the graphene coating with respect to steel just protected by Ni. After the test, the graphene film is still intact with unchanged defect density. Our results show that even non-perfect multilayer graphene films can considerably increase the lifetime of future-generation bipolar plates for fuel cells.