Low cost electrochemical coatings for corrosive environments

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The demand for electrolysis is set to rapidly increase with the roll out of Hydrogen Refuelling Stations and Power-to-Gas systems. However, to guarantee widespread uptake of the technology the cost of the systems needs to come down. We are now at a point where the most expensive process in an electrolyser stack is the platinum coating which is needed to cope with the highly corrosive oxidising environment. The coating is expensive as the components inside the electrolyser are highly porous and the large surface requires a large quantity of platinum. This project aims to coat platinum in only the areas that are needed. In these areas ITM aims to coats a large quantity of platium “spots” as a non-continious coating (2-3000 spots per cm2). It aims to do this using a novel plating bath arangement (one with a low throwing power) and control of the nucleation and growth of platinum on the surface of titanium. It is expected that this will have benefits for low cost coating on fuel cell bipolar plates and any other electrochemical devices operating in corrosive environments.