Estruturas multicamadas de Ti/Ti-Nb para aplicação em eletrolizadores PEM

Abstract

Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolysers are a good alternative for storing energy produced by renewable sources such as wind and solar. PEM electrolysers convert surplus energy into hydrogen that will later be burned or used to produce electricity in a fuel cell. Perhaps one of the major challenges for the large-scale application of PEM of electrolyser is related to the porous transport layer of water, electric charges and oxygen gas produced in the process. Due to the environment PEM eletrolizer, it must have a remarkable corrosion resistance combined with adequate permeability, electrical conductivity and strength. The present work aims to investigate the addition of niobium and titanium-niobium coatings on previously sintered porous titanium substrates for application as porous transport layers in PEM electrolysers. The coatings were obtained by screen printing of a mixture of niobium and titanium powders with a composition of 40% weight of Nb and 60% weight of Ti. The films were co-sintered in plasma device under argon late, they was characterized by scanning electron microscopy to evaluate their microstructure, X-ray diffraction to determine their crystal structure and electrochemical tests to verify the corrosion resistance of the samples. The samples coated with the 60 Ti-Nb alloy showed an enhanced electrochemical performance compared to the uncoated Ti substrate. These results indicate that Ti coated with TiNb has the potential to increase durability of PTL and consequently the performance of PEM electrolysers.