To main content

Ta-ITO Coated Titanium Bipolar Plates for Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers

Abstract

A novel bi-layer coating composed of a tantalum base layer with an Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) top layer was applied to titanium substrates. Samples were polarized ex situ in a parameter study, where the pH, potential and temperature of the electrolyte was altered, as well as the polarization duration. The Interfacial Contact Resistance (ICR) after polarization showed an increase with time for the first 24 h, then stabilized at approx. 30 mΩ cm2. Minor variations were seen in the ICR after polarization at 1.4 VRHE and 2.0 VRHE, but after polarization at 2.5 VRHE and 2.6 VRHE, the ICR increased to 102 mΩ cm2 and 503 mΩ cm2, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis revealed that the oxygen to metal ratio on the Tantalum- Indium Tin Oxide (Ta-ITO) coated sample surfaces increased with increasing polarization potential. The surfaces of the samples polarized at 2.5 VRHE and 2.6 VRHE showed lower concentrations of oxygen vacancies, an increase in hydroxides and a decrease in metallic character compared to the non-coated and baseline samples. ITO proved to be a promising candidate for use as coating on BiPolar Plates (BPPs) in Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers (PEMWEs).
Read the publication

Category

Academic article

Language

English

Author(s)

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Industry / Sustainable Energy Technology
  • SINTEF Industry / Materials and Nanotechnology
  • Spain
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Year

2022

Published in

Journal of the Electrochemical Society

ISSN

0013-4651

Volume

169

Issue

3

Page(s)

1 - 11

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository