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:
Oct. 04, 2011
Filed:
Feb. 28, 2005
Gayatri Vyas, Rochester Hills, MI (US);
Thomas A. Trabold, Pittsford, NY (US);
Stephen William Gaarenstroom, Warren, MI (US);
Gayatri Vyas, Rochester Hills, MI (US);
Thomas A. Trabold, Pittsford, NY (US);
Stephen William Gaarenstroom, Warren, MI (US);
GM Global Technology Operations LLC, Detroit, MI (US);
Abstract
A flow field plate for a fuel cell that has one or more outer layers that makes the plate more conductive and hydrophilic. In one embodiment, the coating is co-deposited as combination of a conductive material and a metal oxide coating. A suitable conductive material is gold and suitable metal oxides include SiO, HfO, ZrO, AlO, SnO, TaO, NbO, MoO, IrO, RuOand mixtures thereof. The conductive material and metal oxide can also be deposited as two separate layers, where the metal oxide is the outer layer. According to another embodiment, a metal layer is deposited on the plate with nanopores that provide the hydrophilicity. Also, doping ions can be added to the metal oxide to provide low fluoride solubility of the coating to control the rate that hydrofluoric acid etches away the oxide layer.