Thermal stabilization of nanocrystalline promoting conductive corrosion resistance of TiN–Ag films for metal bipolar plates

An investigation on the corrosion protection and electrical conductivity films on metal bipolar plates can be achieved through magnetron sputtering. This work characterized the microstructures of TiN–Ag nanocomposite deposited at different temperatures with thermal stabilization. All the TiN–Ag films show adequate electrical conductivity with the interfacial contact resistance (ICR) of 4.81, 4.78, 4.52, 4.18 mΩ cm2 at the deposition temperature of 200 °C–350 °C on SS substrates, respectively, and corrosion resistance with the corrosion current density (Icorr) of 0.678, 0.526, 0.293, 0.596 μA cm−2. Additionally, the TiN–Ag film possesses the hydrophobic property with a static water contact angle of 106.7° at 350 °C. In summary, the TiN–Ag film on SS at 350 °C shows the potential application as metal bipolar plates of PEMFCs.