Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho

Yasuhiro Ozawa

Kazuyuki Nakanishi

Takashi Iseki

Yuka Yamada

Masafumi Koizumi

Naoki Ueda

Takayuki Kikuchi

Hajime Hasegawa

Seiji Mizuno

Shingo Ohta

Katsumi Sato

Hirohiko Hisano

Yoshiyuki Funaki

Katsutoshi Fujisawa

Kyouji Kondo

An amorphous carbon film contains carbon as a main component, not more than 30 at. % of hydrogen, not more than 20 at. % of nitrogen and not more than 3 at. % of oxygen (all excluding 0 at. %), and when the total amount of the carbon is taken as 100 at. %, the amount of carbon having an sphybrid orbital is not less than 70 at. % and less than 100 at. %. Nitrogen and oxygen are concentrated on a surface side of the film and when detected from a surface layer by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, oxygen content ratio is not less than 4 at. % and not more than 15 at. % and nitrogen content ratio is not less than 10 at. % and not more than 30 at. %.

Amorphous carbon film, process for forming amorphous carbon film, electrically conductive member and fuel cell bipolar plate having amorphous carbon film

The oriented amorphous carbon film contains C as a main component, 3 to 20 at. % of N, and more than 0 at. % and not more than 20 at. % of H, and when the total amount of the C is taken as 100 at. %, the amount of C having an sphybrid orbital (Csp) being not less than 70 at. % and less than 100 at. %, and (002) planes of graphite being oriented along a thickness direction. This film has a novel structure and exhibits a high electric conductivity. This film can be formed by DC plasma CVD method in which an electric discharge is generated by applying a voltage of not less than 1500 V to reaction gas including at least one kind of compound gas selected from gas of a carbocyclic compound containing Cspand gas of an N-containing heterocyclic compound containing Csp, and nitrogen and/or silicon, and nitrogen gas.

Oriented amorphous carbon film and process for forming the same

A bipolar plate for a fuel cell comprises a substrate formed of stainless steel; an oriented amorphous carbon film formed at least on a surface of the substrate facing an electrode, and containing C as a main component, 3 to 20 at. % of N, and more than 0 at. % and not more than 20 at. % of H, and when the total amount of the C is taken as 100 at. %, the amount of C having an sphybrid orbital (Csp) being not less than 70 at. % and less than 100 at. %, and (002) planes of graphite being oriented along a thickness direction; a mixed layer generated in an interface between the substrate and the oriented amorphous carbon film and containing at least one kind of constituent atoms of each of the substrate and the oriented amorphous carbon film; and a plurality of projections protruding from the mixed layer into the oriented amorphous carbon film and having a mean length of 10 to 150 nm.

Bipolar plate for fuel cell and method for producing the same

This invention adopts plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition using the apparatus including a chamber, a pair of rotary electrode reels including a feed-out reel and a take-up reel, a plasma source, a material gas supplier, and an exhaust unit, and includes applying a negative voltage applied to the rotary electrode reels from the plasma source while a conductive substrate is fed-out from the feed-out reel and is wound on the take-up reel so that the entire surface of the substrate portion between reels contacts the material gas, whereby plasma sheath is formed along the surface of the substrate portion between reels, and the material gas is activated in the plasma sheath and thus contacts the surface of the substrate, thus forming the film on the surface of the substrate.

Method and apparatus for forming film

Growing community of inventors

Aichi-gun, Japan

Yasuhiro Ozawa