This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution Non-Commercial License which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Electrochemical Characteristics and Damage Behavior in Cathode Operating Conditions of 316L Stainless Steel with Test Time and Applied Potential in Metallic Bipolar Plates for PEMFC
고분자 전해질 연료전지 양극 작동 환경에서 실험 시간 및 작동 전압 변수에 따른 316L 스테인리스강의 전기화학적 특성과 손상 거동
Received: December 09, 2021; Revised: December 13, 2021; Accepted: December 13, 2021
Abstract: In this investigation, electrochemical characteristics and damage behavior of 316L stainless steel polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) were analyzed by potentiodynamic and potentiostatic tests in cathode operating condition of PEMFC. As the result of potentiodynamic polarization test, range of passive region was larger than range of active region. In the result of potentiostatic test, damage depth and width, pit volume, and surface roughness were increased 1.57, 1.27, 2.48, and 1.34 times, respectively, at 1.2 V compared to 0.6 V at 24 hours. Also, as a result of linear regression analysis of damage depth and width graph, trend lines of damage depth and width according to applied potentials were 16.6 and 14.3 times larger, respectively. This demonstrated that applied potential had a greater effect on pitting damage depth of 316L stainless steel. The damage tendency values were 0.329 at 6 hours and 0.633 at 24 hours with applied potentials, representing rapid growth in depth direction according to the test times and applied potentials. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that surface of specimen exhibited clear pitting damage with test times and applied potentials, which was thought to be because a stable oxide film was formed by Cr and Mo.