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:
Sep. 28, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 15, 2001
Donald Jaffrey, Mount Dandenong, AU;
Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited, Noble Park, AU;
Abstract
A metal oxide ceramic material such as alumina or chromia which has been rendered electrically conductive through its thickness by the incorporation of silver into the material. The metal oxide ceramic material may be in the form of a layer on a substrate such as a bipolar plate or other component for a fuel cell assembly. The electrical conductivity may be achieved by heating the ceramic material and a silver-containing material in contact with each other to at least 750° C. such that silver migrates from the silver-containing material the metal oxide ceramic material and creates electrically conductive pathways through the ceramic material. In a particular embodiment, the substrate is a steel which forms an alumina, chromia or alumina-rich or chromia-rich surface layer in oxidizing atmosphere and the silver-containing material is heated in an oxidizing atmosphere in contact with the steel to cause the surface layer to form on the steel and to cause silver from the silver-containing material to occur in and create the electrically conductive pathways through the layer. The silver-containing material may be commercially pure silver or other forms of silver.