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Preparation and Corrosion Resistance of Chromium Carbide Coating on Graphite by Disproportionation Reaction in Molten Salt

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Abstract

Graphites have been considered as the promising materials for the bipolar plates of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. However, the main obstacle is the carbon corrosion under high potential. Applying corrosion resistant and electrically conductive coatings is an effective method to overcome this problem. In this paper, a chromium carbide coating was prepared on the graphite surface by the disproportionation reaction of Cr2+ in molten NaCl-KCl-Cr-CrF3. The effects of molten salt temperature, Cr/CrF3 ratio, and disproportionation reaction time on the formation of the chromium carbide coating were analyzed. Furthermore, the corrosion behavior of the coating was also studied. For graphite, chromium carbide coating can be prepared in NaCl-KCl-Cr-CrF3 system at a relatively low reaction temperature. With the increase of reaction temperature, the coverage rate of chromium carbide coating with the same reaction time is higher, the increase of Cr/CrF3 ratio or the extension of holding time will make chromium carbide into a higher form of Cr/C ratio, and the growth speed of chromium carbide coating gradually decreases with the extension of holding time. The corroison resistance of graphite in 0.1 M H2SO4 + 5 ppm HF solution is increased due to the formation of chromium carbde coating on the surface.

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The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also form part of an ongoing study.

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Acknowledgments

This project is supported by National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for College Students [Grant No. 202110593032], Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province [Grant No. 2021GXNSFAA220118], and National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 51801035].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, People’s Republic of China

    Yanli Wang, Huimin Shi, Junru Li, Wenjiao Zhang & Jiajie Wu

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  1. Yanli Wang
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  2. Huimin Shi
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  4. Wenjiao Zhang
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Contributions

YW: Writing original draft, project administration, supervision, data analysis, review & editing. HS: Methodology, data processing and analysis. JW: Writing original draft, data processing and analysis. JL: Methodology, data processing and analysis.

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Correspondence to Yanli Wang or Jiajie Wu.

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Wang, Y., Shi, H., Li, J. et al. Preparation and Corrosion Resistance of Chromium Carbide Coating on Graphite by Disproportionation Reaction in Molten Salt. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 32, 6725–6737 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-022-07600-y

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