CN117059829A - Fuel cell bipolar plate and fuel cell - Google Patents

Fuel cell bipolar plate and fuel cell Download PDF

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Publication number
CN117059829A
CN117059829A CN202311290941.9A CN202311290941A CN117059829A CN 117059829 A CN117059829 A CN 117059829A CN 202311290941 A CN202311290941 A CN 202311290941A CN 117059829 A CN117059829 A CN 117059829A
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Prior art keywords
fuel cell
liquid flow
bipolar plate
flow channel
metal substrate
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Granted
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CN202311290941.9A
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Chinese (zh)
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CN117059829B (en
Inventor
张孟彤
王刚
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Shanghai Hongfeng Industrial Co ltd
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Shanghai Hongfeng Industrial Co ltd
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01M—PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
    • H01M8/00—Fuel cells; Manufacture thereof
    • H01M8/02—Details
    • H01M8/0202—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors
    • H01M8/0204—Non-porous and characterised by the material
    • H01M8/0206—Metals or alloys
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01M—PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
    • H01M8/00—Fuel cells; Manufacture thereof
    • H01M8/02—Details
    • H01M8/0202—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors
    • H01M8/0204—Non-porous and characterised by the material
    • H01M8/0213—Gas-impermeable carbon-containing materials
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01M—PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
    • H01M8/00—Fuel cells; Manufacture thereof
    • H01M8/02—Details
    • H01M8/0202—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors
    • H01M8/0204—Non-porous and characterised by the material
    • H01M8/0223—Composites
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01M—PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
    • H01M8/00—Fuel cells; Manufacture thereof
    • H01M8/02—Details
    • H01M8/0202—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors
    • H01M8/0258—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors characterised by the configuration of channels, e.g. by the flow field of the reactant or coolant
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01M—PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
    • H01M8/00—Fuel cells; Manufacture thereof
    • H01M8/02—Details
    • H01M8/0202—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors
    • H01M8/0258—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors characterised by the configuration of channels, e.g. by the flow field of the reactant or coolant
    • H01M8/0263—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors characterised by the configuration of channels, e.g. by the flow field of the reactant or coolant having meandering or serpentine paths
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01M—PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
    • H01M8/00—Fuel cells; Manufacture thereof
    • H01M8/02—Details
    • H01M8/0202—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors
    • H01M8/0267—Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors having heating or cooling means, e.g. heaters or coolant flow channels
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
    • Y02E60/00—Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
    • Y02E60/30—Hydrogen technology
    • Y02E60/50—Fuel cells

Abstract

The invention provides a bipolar plate of a fuel cell and the fuel cell. The fuel cell bipolar plate comprises: a metal substrate; liquid flow channels respectively arranged on two surfaces of the metal substrate; a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet arranged at two ends of each liquid flow channel; and the carbon nanotube array is arranged in the liquid flow channel. According to the invention, the carbon nanotube array is formed through the liquid flow channel in the metal substrate, so that on one hand, the electric conduction and heat conduction capabilities of the fuel cell bipolar plate along the direction vertical to the surface of the metal substrate can be improved, and on the other hand, the carbon nanotubes have good corrosion resistance, so that the corrosion resistance of the whole battery and the generation of pinholes on the surface treatment layer of the metal bipolar plate can be prevented.

Description

Fuel cell bipolar plate and fuel cell
Technical Field
The invention relates to a fuel cell bipolar plate and a fuel cell.
Background
A fuel cell is a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy by a chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen in a fuel cell stack. Unlike conventional internal combustion engines, the power from a fuel cell comes from the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, without involving combustion, and the product is water. Therefore, the fuel cell has the advantages of zero emission, high efficiency, low noise and the like.
A fuel cell stack is generally formed by stacking a plurality of fuel cells in series, and the fuel cells are mainly formed by stacking two major core components, namely a bipolar plate and a membrane electrode in series. The bipolar plate is mainly used for distributing reaction gas, conducting electricity and heat and supporting a membrane electrode in a fuel cell stack, and is a framework and a foundation of a fuel cell. Typically, bipolar plates consist of inlet and outlet ports, flow channels and reaction zones. The inlet and the outlet introduce hydrogen, oxygen/air and cooling liquid into the bipolar plate to provide working medium for electrochemical reaction; the flow channel is mainly used for uniformly distributing hydrogen, oxygen/air and cooling liquid into the flow channel of the reaction zone, so that the consistency of electrochemical reaction is ensured; the reaction zone is in uniform contact with the membrane electrode and is supplied with hydrogen and oxygen/air. Currently, bipolar plates mainly comprise three main types of graphite bipolar plates, composite bipolar plates and metal bipolar plates. However, the metal bipolar plate has disadvantages in terms of conductivity and corrosion resistance.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention provides a bipolar plate of a fuel cell and the fuel cell, which can effectively solve the problems.
The invention is realized in the following way:
the present invention provides a fuel cell bipolar plate comprising:
a metal substrate;
liquid flow channels respectively arranged on two surfaces of the metal substrate;
a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet arranged at two ends of each liquid flow channel;
and the carbon nanotube array is arranged in the liquid flow channel.
As a further improvement, the width of the liquid flow channel is defined to be 2-3 times of the width A of the flow channel in the common hydrogen fuel cell electrode plate.
As a further improvement, the flatness of the liquid flow channel needs to be below 5 μm.
As a further improvement, the carbon nanotube array is formed directly grown in the liquid flow channel.
As a further improvement, the height of the carbon nanotube array is 1-100 microns.
As a further improvement, the catalyst for growing the carbon nanotube array is Co.
As a further improvement, the fuel cell bipolar plate further comprises:
the water permeable opening is formed in the middle of the metal substrate; and
the permeable opening is of a strip-shaped structure and penetrates through more than 90% of the liquid flow passage.
As a further improvement, the length of a single liquid flow channel is defined as A, and the width a of the water permeable opening is 0.1A-0.2A.
The present invention still further provides a fuel cell comprising a fuel cell bipolar plate as described above.
The beneficial effects of the invention are as follows: according to the invention, the carbon nanotube array is formed through the liquid flow channel in the metal substrate, so that on one hand, the electric conduction and heat conduction capabilities of the fuel cell bipolar plate along the direction vertical to the surface of the metal substrate can be improved, and on the other hand, the carbon nanotubes have good corrosion resistance, so that the corrosion resistance of the whole battery and the generation of pinholes on the surface treatment layer of the metal bipolar plate can be prevented.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings that are needed in the embodiments will be briefly described below, it being understood that the following drawings only illustrate some examples of the present invention and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope, and other related drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.
Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a bipolar plate of a fuel cell according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a fuel cell bipolar plate along section A-A provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3 is a schematic structural view of a bipolar plate of a fuel cell according to another embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method for manufacturing a fuel cell unipolar plate according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a method for manufacturing a bipolar plate of a fuel cell according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description
For the purpose of making the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention more apparent, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are some embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, based on the embodiments of the invention, which are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without inventive faculty, are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, as presented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, as claimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the invention. All other embodiments, based on the embodiments of the invention, which are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without inventive faculty, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.
In the description of the present invention, the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more such feature. In the description of the present invention, the meaning of "a plurality" is two or more, unless explicitly defined otherwise.
Referring to fig. 1, the present invention is embodied to provide a bipolar plate for a fuel cell, the bipolar plate 100 comprising:
a metal substrate 10;
liquid flow channels 13 respectively provided on both surfaces of the metal substrate 10;
a fluid inlet 11 and a fluid outlet 12 provided at both ends of each liquid flow path 13;
and a carbon nanotube array 14 disposed in the liquid flow channel 13.
The material of the metal substrate 10 is not limited, and nickel (Ni) or stainless steel may be used as the metal plate material. In one embodiment, the metal substrate 10 is made of stainless steel. In other embodiments, the metal substrate 10 is formed by welding two stainless steel plates, that is, after the liquid flow channels 13 and the carbon nanotube arrays 14 are formed on the surfaces of the two stainless steel plates, the two stainless steel plates are welded together by a welding process, so that the liquid flow channels 13 and the carbon nanotube arrays 14 are formed on the opposite surfaces of the metal substrate 10.
The shape, length, size, etc. of the liquid flow channel 13 may be selected according to actual needs, and are not limited herein. In order to prevent the flow channel from being blocked, the width of the liquid flow channel 13 is about 2 to 3 times the width a of the flow channel in a typical hydrogen fuel cell electrode plate. Specifically, the width a of the flow channel in the electrode plate in a typical hydrogen fuel cell is generally about 1.5 to 2.5mm, and the width is different depending on the size and the actual choice. Of course, the widening of the flow channel is also beneficial to forming a surface with higher flatness in the local area of the middle of the liquid flow channel 13.
Further, in order to enable the carbon nanotube array 14 to grow and adhere to the liquid flow channel 13, the liquid flow channel 13 needs to have a high flatness. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a certain flatness to the surface by means of mechanical polishing, electrochemical polishing, or the like. Preferably, the flatness of the liquid flow channel 13 is less than 5 micrometers, more preferably, the flatness of the liquid flow channel 13 is less than 2 micrometers, and in one embodiment, the flatness of the liquid flow channel 13 is about 0.5 micrometers.
The fluid inlet 11 and the fluid outlet 12 are through holes, and the size thereof is not limited herein.
The carbon nanotube array 14 is directly grown in the liquid flow channel 13. The carbon nanotube array 14 includes a plurality of carbon nanotubes grown and aligned substantially perpendicular to the surface of the metal substrate 10. The width of the carbon nanotube array 14 is not limited, and may be selected according to practical needs. The height of the carbon nanotube array 14 may be about 1 micron to 100 microns (the height thereof may be controlled by the length of the translation time), and the diameter of the carbon nanotubes may be 0.5 nm to 100 nm. Preferably, the height of the carbon nanotube array 14 may be about 10 micrometers to 50 micrometers. More preferably, the height of the carbon nanotube array 14 may be about 20 micrometers to 40 micrometers. The carbon nanotubes in the carbon nanotube array 14 may be single-walled carbon nanotubes or multi-walled carbon nanotubes and mixtures thereof. Specifically, the growing step of the carbon nanotube array 14 includes: a mask layer is arranged on the surface of the metal substrate 10, wherein the area of the mask layer corresponding to the liquid flow channel 13 is an opening area; depositing a silicon layer on a part of the surface of the liquid runner 13; depositing a catalyst layer on the surface of the silicon layer, wherein the catalyst layer is used for growing carbon nanotubes; the treated metal substrate 10 is placed in a reactor, a carbon source is introduced and heated to a reaction temperature, thereby growing a carbon nanotube array 14 on the surface of the catalyst layer.
The provision of the masking layer is not described in detail in the prior art. The silicon layer is provided to further improve the flatness of the liquid flow channel 13, so that the carbon nanotube array can be tightly adsorbed in the liquid flow channel 13. The silicon layer may be formed by chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, thermal evaporation, electron beam evaporation, or the like, and will not be described in detail herein. The catalyst layer is typically one of iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), or an alloy thereof, which may be formed by electron beam evaporation deposition, thermal deposition, sputtering, or the like. Preferably, cobalt (Co) can be selected as a catalyst, and the deposition thickness is generally about 1-10 nanometers. The cobalt catalyst is used, and due to the growth of the array, the final cobalt catalyst can be attached to the top of the carbon nano tube array, so that the effect of improving the efficiency and stability of the cell in the subsequent hydrogen fuel cell can be achieved. The carbon source can be hydrocarbon, such as methane, acetylene, ethylene, etc., and the heating temperature is 620-680 deg.c.
After forming the carbon nanotube array, it may further include:
the top of the carbon nano tube array is ablated by laser irradiation (under vacuum or inert atmosphere), so that openings are formed at the top of the carbon nano tube due to high temperature, and adjacent carbon nano tubes are fused together through melted carbon elements, thereby improving the overall strength of the carbon nano tube array and preventing the carbon nano tube array from lodging. The carbon nanotubes between the carbon nanotube arrays form a forest-shaped array structure by van der Waals attraction, however, since the van der Waals attraction is small, the carbon nanotubes are easily washed by a solution and lodged in the subsequent use process, and therefore, the strength between the carbon nanotube arrays needs to be improved.
Compared with the traditional engine, the heat efficiency of the fuel cell engine is higher and is more in the range of 45-60%, and the heat dissipation capacity of the fuel cell is about 10-20% greater than that of the traditional engine. While fuel cell engines are much more demanding than conventional engines in terms of heat dissipation issues. The data show that 15% of the heat dissipated by a conventional engine is dissipated through the engine block, 40% is exhausted as exhaust through the exhaust pipe, and only 8% of the heat is dissipated through the radiator. In the aspect of heat dissipation, the fuel cell engine mainly depends on a radiator, under the theoretical condition, the heat efficiency of the fuel cell system and the heat of the radiator are about 41 percent, and 18 percent of the heat needs to be dissipated through the radiator; however, under severe conditions, the thermal efficiency of the fuel cell system is about 35%, only 3% of the heat is discharged through the exhaust gas, and the remaining 62% of the heat needs to be dissipated through the radiator. And the working temperature of the fuel cell is relatively low, the temperature difference between the cooling liquid in the radiator and the environment is smaller than that of a traditional automobile, and the heat management is more serious. The invention can ensure that the battery monomer has better heat radiation performance along the extending direction of the carbon nano tube through the deposition of the carbon nano tube array.
Referring to fig. 3, in other embodiments, the fuel cell bipolar plate may further comprise:
a water permeable opening 15 formed in the middle of the metal substrate 10; and
and a ventilation and water permeation plate 20 arranged at the water permeation opening 15.
The air-permeable and water-permeable plate 20 and the metal substrate 10 have mutually matched flow channels. The material of the water-permeable opening 15 and the air-permeable and water-permeable plate 20 may be referred to in the patent application 2014.09.23, filed by the applicant and entitled "201420549770.7" and entitled "a fuel cell composite graphite bipolar plate", which will not be described herein. The water outside the bipolar plate 100 can enter the flow channel through the air-permeable and water-permeable plate 20, so that the flow channel can meet the specified humidity requirement, the normal operation of the bipolar plate 100 is ensured, and the power capability of the fuel cell is improved. As a further improvement, the water-permeable opening 15 is provided in the middle of the metal base plate 10. In one embodiment, the water permeable opening 15 has a strip structure and penetrates more than 90% of the liquid flow channels 13. As a further improvement, the length of the single liquid flow channel 13 is defined as a, and the width a of the water permeable opening 15 is about 0.1a to 0.2a. It will be appreciated that the humidity at which water can enter the cathode reactant gas flow channels through the gas permeable membrane 20 can be controlled by controlling the width of the water permeable openings 15. In general, the length a of the single liquid flow channel 13 is about 5cm to 10cm, and thus the width a of the water permeable opening 15 is about 0.5cm to 1 cm. If the width a of the water permeable opening 15 is too small, it is not easy to process and assemble, and if the humidity is too large or it is significantly increased, it is also unfavorable for the reaction.
The embodiment of the invention further provides a fuel cell comprising the fuel cell bipolar plate. Other structures of the fuel cell are not described in detail herein for the prior art.
Referring to fig. 4, the present invention further provides a method for preparing a single electrode plate of a fuel cell, which includes the following steps:
s1, providing a metal substrate, wherein a liquid flow channel 13 is arranged on the surface of the metal substrate, and a fluid inlet 11 and a fluid outlet 12 are arranged at two ends of the liquid flow channel 13;
s2, mechanically polishing or electrochemically polishing the liquid flow channel 13 to ensure that the flatness of the liquid flow channel is required to be lower than 5 microns;
and S3, growing a carbon nano tube array 14 on the surface of the polished liquid flow channel 13.
In step S1, the liquid flow channels 13, the fluid inlets 11 and the fluid outlets 12 and other auxiliary structures may be prepared on the metal substrate by press forming a mold.
In step S2, the mechanical polishing or electrochemical polishing of the liquid flow channel 13 may be a partial area or a full area, which is not limited herein. More preferably, the flatness of the liquid flow path 13 is required to be less than 2 μm.
In step S3, the growing step of the carbon nanotube array 14 includes: s31, a mask layer is arranged on the surface of the metal substrate 10, wherein the area of the mask layer corresponding to the liquid flow channel 13 is an opening area; depositing a silicon layer on a part of the surface of the liquid runner 13; depositing a catalyst layer on the surface of the silicon layer, wherein the catalyst layer is used for growing carbon nanotubes; the treated metal substrate 10 is placed in a reactor, a carbon source is introduced and heated to a reaction temperature, thereby growing a carbon nanotube array 14 on the surface of the catalyst layer. The provision of the masking layer is not described in detail in the prior art. The silicon layer is provided to further improve the flatness of the liquid flow channel 13, so that the carbon nanotube array can be tightly adsorbed in the liquid flow channel 13. The silicon layer may be formed by chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, thermal evaporation, electron beam evaporation, or the like, and will not be described in detail herein. The catalyst layer is typically one of iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), or an alloy thereof, which may be formed by electron beam evaporation deposition, thermal deposition, sputtering, or the like. Specifically, cobalt (Co) can be selected as a catalyst, and the deposition thickness is generally about 1-10 nanometers. The carbon source can be hydrocarbon, such as methane, acetylene, ethylene, etc., and the heating temperature is 620-680 deg.c.
After forming the carbon nanotube array, it may further include:
s32, ablating the top of the carbon nano tube array (under vacuum or inert atmosphere) through laser irradiation, so that openings are formed in the top of the carbon nano tube due to high temperature, and adjacent carbon nano tubes are fused together through melted carbon elements, thereby improving the overall strength of the carbon nano tube array and preventing the carbon nano tube array from lodging. Preferably, argon with the best heat conduction performance is selected, so that the anti-oxidation effect can be achieved, and heat can be emitted from the argon in the subsequent reheating process.
The laser parameters selected for laser irradiation ablation include in particular: the power of the laser can be 10-50 watts, the scanning speed of the laser can be 200-500 mm/s, and the diameter of a light spot of the laser can be 500-5 mm. Since the ablation is performed in an argon atmosphere in this embodiment, a larger power is required to heat and melt the carbon nanotubes than in the case of oxidation in ordinary air. However, if the power is too high and the temperature is too high, heat is rapidly conducted to the metal substrate, the bonding performance of the carbon nanotube and the metal substrate is reduced-! Therefore, the power of the laser may be preferably between 30 watts and 40 watts. In addition, the control of the scanning speed also affects the bonding performance of the carbon nanotubes and the metal substrate and the fusion between the carbon nanotubes. The slow scanning speed makes a large amount of heat transfer to the metal substrate (but not from the argon atmosphere), and the bonding performance is reduced (thermal expansion is different) due to the large temperature difference between the two. In addition, if the scanning speed is too high, the top carbon nanotubes are not sufficiently melted yet, and fusion between the carbon nanotubes may be affected. Therefore, the laser scanning speed may be preferably 300 mm/s to 400 mm/s. In one of the embodiments, the laser light is emitted by a Yag laser (yttrium aluminum garnet crystal (Y 3 Al 5 O 12 ) At a wavelength of 1064 nm, a power of 36 watts, and a laser scan speed of 350 mm/s.
The present invention provides a fuel cell unipolar plate, the unipolar plate comprising:
a metal substrate 10;
liquid flow channels 13 respectively provided on the surfaces of the metal substrates 10;
a fluid inlet 11 and a fluid outlet 12 provided at both ends of the liquid flow path 13;
and a carbon nanotube array 14 disposed in the liquid flow channel 13.
The primary difference between the unipolar plate and the bipolar plate of the present invention is that the liquid flow channels 13 and the carbon nanotube arrays 14 in the unipolar plate are distributed only on one surface of the metal substrate 10, and the bipolar plate is formed by welding two unipolar plates.
Referring to fig. 5, the present invention further provides a method for preparing a bipolar plate of a fuel cell, which comprises the following steps:
s1, providing a metal substrate, wherein a liquid flow channel 13 is arranged on the surface of the metal substrate, and a fluid inlet 11 and a fluid outlet 12 are arranged at two ends of the liquid flow channel 13;
s2, mechanically polishing or electrochemically polishing the liquid flow channel 13 to ensure that the flatness of the liquid flow channel is required to be lower than 5 microns;
s3, growing a carbon nano tube array 14 on the surface of the polished liquid flow channel 13;
and S4, welding two unipolar plates formed with the carbon nanotube array 14 together to form the fuel cell bipolar plate.
Steps S1-S3 in this example are identical to the preparation steps of the electrodes in the electrode plate and will not be described here. As a further improvement, in other embodiments, the surface of the metal substrate is also provided with water-permeable openings 15. Therefore, as a further improvement, after step S4, further comprising:
the air-permeable and water-permeable plate 20 is seamlessly abutted in the water-permeable opening 15.
In step S4, two unipolar plates may be welded together to form a bipolar plate using a high speed laser welding system, which primarily utilizes laser to fuse the weld to effect the connection.
The above description is only of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and variations may be made to the present invention by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (9)

1. A fuel cell bipolar plate comprising:
a metal substrate;
liquid flow channels respectively arranged on two surfaces of the metal substrate;
a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet arranged at two ends of each liquid flow channel;
and the carbon nanotube array grows in the liquid flow channel.
2. The bipolar plate of claim 1 wherein the width of the fluid flow channels is defined to be 2-3 times the width a of the flow channels in a typical hydrogen fuel cell electrode plate.
3. The fuel cell bipolar plate of claim 1 wherein the flatness of the liquid flow channels is less than 5 microns.
4. The fuel cell bipolar plate of claim 1 wherein said array of carbon nanotubes is formed directly in said liquid flow channels.
5. The fuel cell bipolar plate of claim 4 wherein the carbon nanotube array has a height of 1 micron to 100 microns.
6. The fuel cell bipolar plate of claim 4 wherein the catalyst for growing the carbon nanotube array is Co.
7. The fuel cell bipolar plate of claim 1 further comprising:
the water permeable opening is formed in the middle of the metal substrate; and
the permeable opening is of a strip-shaped structure and penetrates through more than 90% of the liquid flow passage.
8. The bipolar plate of claim 7 wherein a length of a single fluid flow channel is defined as a and a width of the water permeable opening a is 0.1a to 0.2a.
9. A fuel cell comprising a fuel cell bipolar plate according to any one of claims 1-8.
CN202311290941.9A 2023-10-08 2023-10-08 Fuel cell bipolar plate and fuel cell Active CN117059829B (en)

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US20040086768A1 (en) * 2000-01-27 2004-05-06 Karen Fleckner Fuel cells
CN1845367A (en) * 2005-04-08 2006-10-11 鸿富锦精密工业（深圳）有限公司 Fuel cell and its deflector structure
CN1851964A (en) * 2005-04-22 2006-10-25 鸿富锦精密工业（深圳）有限公司 Double-polar board, its preparing method and fuel cell having said double-polar board
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CN204118185U (en) * 2014-09-23 2015-01-21 上海弘枫实业有限公司 A kind of fuel cell composite graphite bipolar plates
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