Low cost electrochemical coatings for corrosive environments

随着加氢站和电力天然气系统的推出，对电解的需求将迅速增加。然而，为了保证广泛采用该技术，系统的成本需要下降。我们现在正处于这样一个点，在电解槽堆栈中最昂贵的过程是铂涂层，这是需要科普高度腐蚀性的氧化环境。该涂层是昂贵的，因为电解槽内的部件是高度多孔的，并且大的表面需要大量的铂。该项目旨在仅在需要的区域涂覆铂。在这些区域，ITM的目标是涂覆大量的铂“点”作为非连续涂层（每平方厘米2-3000个点）。其目的是使用一种新型的镀液布置（具有低分散能力）和控制钛表面上铂的成核和生长来实现这一点。预期这将有利于燃料电池双极板和在腐蚀性环境中操作的任何其它电化学装置上的低成本涂层。

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.