The aim of this review is to summarize the possibilities of replacing graphite bipolar plates in fuel-cells. The review is mostly focused on metallic bipolar plates, which benefit from many properties required for fuel cells, viz. good mechanical properties, thermal and electrical conductivity, availability, and others. The main disadvantage of metals is that their corrosion resistance in the fuel-cell environment originates from the formation of a passive layer, which significantly increases interfacial contact resistance. Suitable coating systems prepared by a proper deposition method are eventually able to compensate for this disadvantage and make the replacement of graphite bipolar plates possible. This review compares coatings, materials, and deposition methods based on electrochemical measurements and contact resistance properties with respect to achieving appropriate parameters established by the DOE as objectives for 2020. An extraordinary number of studies have been performed, but only a minority of them provided promising results. One of these is the nanocrystalline β-Nb₂N coating on AISI 430, prepared by the disproportionation reaction of Nb(IV) in molten salt, which satisfied the DOE 2020 objectives in terms of corrosion resistance and interfacial contact resistance. From other studies, TiN, CrN, NbC, TiC, or amorphous carbon-based coatings seem to be promising. This paper is novel in extracting important aspects for future studies and methods for testing the properties of metallic materials and factors affecting monitoring characteristics and parameters.

Stainless steels are materials that could be used for constructing not only the bearing parts of fuel cells but also the functional ones, particularly the bipolar plates. The advantage of stainless steel is its valuable electrical and thermal conductivity, reasonably low cost, excellent mechanical properties, and good formability. Paradoxically, the self-protection effect resulting from passivation turns into the main disadvantage, which is unacceptable interfacial contact resistance. The aim of this study was to test a number of possible stainless steels in a simulated fuel cell environment, especially those alloyed with boron and manganese, which were found to improve the contact resistance properties of stainless steels. The primary focus of the study is to determine the corrosion resistance of the individual materials tested. Electrochemical tests and contact resistance measurements were performed following the DOE requirements. Manganese-alloyed LDX stainless steel achieved the best results in the electrochemical tests; the worst were achieved by boron-containing steels. Boron-containing stainless steels suffered from localized corrosion resulting from chromium-rich boride formation. All steels tested exceeded the DOE limit in the contact resistance measurement, with 316L reaching the lowest values.