The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 19, 2018
Filed:
Feb. 11, 2015
Ford Global Technologies, Llc, Dearborn, MI (US);
Mark Stephen Ricketts, Windsor, CA;
Shinichi Hirano, West Bloomfield, MI (US);
Jun Yang, Bloomfield Hills, MI (US);
Kerrie K. Gath, Pittsfield, MI (US);
Chunchuan Xu, Troy, MI (US);
Ford Global Technologies, LLC, Dearborn, MI (US);
Abstract
The present disclosure includes a fuel cell bipolar plate including a coating and methods for forming the coating. The bipolar plate may include a steel substrate and a coating contacting the steel substrate. The coating may include a plurality of alternating oxide-forming layers and elution resistant layers. The oxide-forming layers may include pure titanium, doped titanium, or a titanium alloy (e.g. doped/alloyed with niobium, zirconium, vanadium, silver, tantalum, yttrium, scandium, or nitrogen) and the elution resistant layers may include a noble metal or tantalum (e.g., gold, iridium, ruthenium, or tantalum). There may be 2-20 layers each of the oxide-forming layers and the elution resistant layers. The coating may prevent elution of iron ions from the steel substrate, for example, by forming oxide plugs in defects or pinholes in the oxide forming and/or elution resistant layers. The coating may also reduce the total usage of precious metals, such as gold.