• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.461-466
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• 2016

Nanocrystalline vanadium nitride (VN) coatings were deposited using asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering to further understand the influence of the pulsed plasmas on the crystal structure, microstructure and mechanical properties. Properties of VN coatings were investigated with FE-SEM, XRD and nanoindentation. The results show that, with the increasing pulse frequency and decreasing duty cycle, the coating morphology changed from a porous columnar to a dense structure, with finer grains. Asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtered VN coatings showed higher hardness, elastic modulus and residual compressive stress than dc sputtered VN coatings. The results suggest that asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering technique is very beneficial for the reactive sputtering deposition of VN coatings.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.86-92
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• 2014

The purpose of this comparative study was to investigate the properties of chromium nitride coatings deposited by asymmetric bipolar pulsed DC sputtering and DC sputtering system. Oscilloscope traces of the I-V waveforms indicate high power and high current density outputs during the asymmetric bipolar pulsed mode. The grain size decreases with decreasing duty cycle. The duty cycle has a strong influence not only on the microstructural properties but also on the mechanical properties of chromium nitride coatings. Comparing with the continuous DC sputtering, the chromium nitride coatings prepared by pulsed DC asymmetric bipolar process also exhibit better surface roughness.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.169-174
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• 2014

The effect of varying amounts of graphite and $TiB_2$ on the electrical conductivity of composite bipolar plates was systematically studied. In this study, Titanium diboride ($TiB_2$) which has a high electrical conductivity, was selected as a filler and a additive material instead of conventional graphite. For proper distribution of the filler and matrix materials, ball milling using alumina balls was conducted for 1h, and then the hot press method was applied for the preparation of composite samples. The results showed a rapid increase in the electrical conductivity of composite bipolar plates at the critical filler content. However, $TiB_2$ and graphite composite bipolar plates showed similar increases in the electrical conductivity even though $TiB_2$ has a higher electrical conductivity than graphite. In addition, it was also found that a small addition of $TiB_2$ to graphite filler could be very effective for increasing the electrical conductivity and flexural strength of the composite bipolar plate.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.3 no.1 s.9
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• pp.75-82
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• 2007

Aluminum was used as metallic bipolar plate material to reduce a stack weight. The functional materials such as conductive material, Au and nonconductive material, PTFE [polytetrafluoroethylene] were coated on the bipolar plate to enhance electrical contact and corrosion prevention in PEMFC. The active area of bipolar plate is divided into the top layer part that electric current mainly passes, and the bottom layer part that gas and water pass. The bottom layer part in the flow channel needs not to have electrical conductivity because it doesn't pass electric current directly. In this reason, Au on the top layer and PTFE on the bottom layer were coated to apply high electrical conductivity and/or good corrosion resistance. Although the single cell performance using Au-PTFE/Al bipolar plate was shown 78% in comparison with that of graphite, specific power of Au-PTFE/Al bipolar plate(0.4 W/g) was twice as much as graphite bipolar plate.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.5-12
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• 2012

The weight of the bipolar plate is one of the crucial aspects of improving power density in PEMFC stacks. Aluminum alloys have good mechanical properties such as density, electrical resistivity, and thermal conductivity. Furthermore, using aluminum in a bipolar plate instead of graphite reduces the bipolar plate cost and makes machining easier. Therefore in this study, an aluminum alloy was selected as the appropriate material for a bipolar plate. Results from feasibility experiments with the aim of developing fuel cells consisting of Al bipolar plates with multiple channels are presented. Dynamic loading was applied and the formability of micro channels was estimated as a function of punch pressure and die radius. Sheets of Al5052 with a thickness of 0.3mm were used. For a die radius of 0.1mm the formability was optimized with a sine wave dynamic load of 90kN at maximum pressure and 5 cycles of a sine wave punch travel. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed manufacturing technique for producing bipolar plates.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.554-559
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• 2015

Single cell of PEMFC (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) is composed of bipolar plates, gasket, GDL and the MEA. Bipolar plate's function is the collecting electricity, helping oxygen/hydrogen gas diffuse evenly and draining the water and heat. In this work, we have conducted experiments to low contact resistance and improve the performance of a $25cm^2$ single cell by using metal forms. We have following experimental cases: 1) Conventional graphite serpentine channel bipolar plate; 2) Channel-less bipolar plate with nickel(Ni) based metal foam which coated by various materials. We focused the difference in contact resistance and performance of the single cell with metal foam depending on various coating materials. The experimental results show the similar performance of single cells between with serpentine channel bipolar plates and with channel-less bipolar plate using metal foams. In addition, single cell with metal foam shows potential to higher performance than conventional channel.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.175-181
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• 2018

Stamping process and rubber pad forming process were performed to manufacture the bipolar plate for fuel cells. For that, a vacuum die casting process and a semi-solid forming process wherein liquid-state materials were used were adopted. After preparing the blank with the stainless steel thin plate having a thickness of 0.1 mm, the bipolar plate channel was formed with the stamping process and rubber pad forming process. The depth of the bipolar plate channel prepared by the stamping method was 0.45 mm and the depth of the bipolar plate channel prepared by the rubber pad forming process was 0.41 mm. Meanwhile, with the vacuum die casting and semi solid forming, the bipolar plate having a channel depth of 0.3 mm, same as the size of the die, could be formed.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.131.2-131.2
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• 2007

• Carbon letters
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2013

This study investigated a developed process for producing a composite bipolar plate having excellent conductivity by using coal tar pitch and phenol resin as binders. We used a pressing method to prepare a compact of graphite powder mixed with binders. Resistivity of the impregnated compact was observed as heat treatment temperature was increased. It was observed that pore sizes of the GCTP samples increased as the heat treatment temperature increased. There was not a great difference between the flexural strengths of GCTP-IM and CPR-IM as the heat treatment temperature was increased. The resistivity of GPR700-IM, heat treated at $700^{\circ}C$ using phenolic resin as a binder, was $4829{\mu}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ which was best value in this study. In addition, it is expected that with the appropriate selection of carbon powder and further optimization of process we can produce a composite bipolar plate which has excellent properties.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.319-331
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• 2013

Electrodialysis with bipolar membranes (EDBM) has recently gained increasing attention for the recovery and production of acids or bases from the corresponding salt solutions and other high value-added business like food processing and biochemical industry. EDBM possesses economical and environmental benefits and can complex with other process such as ion exchange process, extraction and adsorption. So this paper investigates a brief overview of development for bipolar membrane and EDBM with the practical application.