Titanium product, separator, and proton exchange membrane fuel cell, and method for producing titanium product

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10505205-B2
Application number	US-201615554272-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 3, 2016
Priority date	Mar 3, 2015
Publication date	Dec 10, 2019
Grant date	Dec 10, 2019

Abstract

A titanium product for a separator of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell according to the present invention includes: a base material that consists of commercially pure titanium; a first oxide layer that is formed in a surface layer of the titanium product, consists of TiO2 of a rutile crystallinity, and has a thickness of 0.1 to 1.5 nm; and a second oxide layer that is formed between the base material and the first oxide layer, consists of TiOx (1<x<2), and has a thickness of 3 to 20 nm. This titanium product is suitable to be used as a separator of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell that has a high corrosion resistance in an environment in a fuel cell, is capable of keeping a low contact resistance with an electrode consisting of carbon fiber and the like, and is inexpensive.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A titanium product for a separator of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, the titanium product comprising:
a base material, a first oxide layer, and a second oxide layer, wherein
the base material consists of a commercially pure titanium selected from type 1 to 4 specified in JIS H 4600:2014,
the first oxide layer is formed in a surface layer of the titanium product, consists of TiO 2 of a rutile crystallinity, and has a thickness of 0.3 to 1.5 nm, and
the second oxide layer is formed between the base material and the first oxide layer, consists of TiO x (1<x<2), and has a thickness of 3 to 20 nm.

2. The titanium product according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one of a noble metal layer and a conductive carbon material layer formed on the first oxide layer.

3. A separator for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, the separator comprising the titanium product according to claim 1 .

4. A proton exchange membrane fuel cell comprising the separator according to claim 3 .

5. A method for producing a titanium product, the method comprising the steps:
a solution treatment step which is treating a substrate consists of commercially pure titanium selected from type 1 to 4 specified in JIS H 4600:2014 using an aqueous solution containing fluoride ions;
a first heat treatment step which is subjecting the substrate treated in the solution treatment step to heat treatment under a low-oxygen-partial-pressure atmosphere having an oxygen partial pressure of 0.1 Pa or less, at 200 to 550° C., for 10 to 300 minutes; and
a second heat treatment step which is subjecting the substrate treated in the first heat treatment step to heat treatment under a high-oxygen-partial-pressure atmosphere having an oxygen partial pressure of 10000 Pa or more, at 200 to 500° C., for 2 to 30 minutes.

6. The method for producing a titanium product according to claim 5 , further comprising a noble metal layer forming step which is, after performing the first and second heat treatment steps, supplying a noble metal to a surface of the titanium product to form a noble metal layer.

7. The method for producing a titanium product according to claim 5 , further comprising a conductive carbon material layer forming step which is, after performing the first and second heat treatment steps, supplying carbon to a surface of the substrate to form a conductive carbon material layer.

8. A separator for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, the separator comprising the titanium product according to claim 2 .

9. A proton exchange membrane fuel cell comprising the separator according to claim 8 .

10. The method for producing a titanium product according to claim 6 , further comprising a conductive carbon material layer forming step which is, after performing the first and second heat treatment steps, supplying carbon to a surface of the substrate to form a conductive carbon material layer.

Assignees

• Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp
• Nippon Steel Corp

Inventors

• Imamura Junko
• Nishiyama Yoshitaka
• Masaki Yasuhiro
• Maki Jun
• Taniguchi Shunsuke
• Kaminaka Hideya

Classifications

• H01M8/0206 Primary

  Metals or alloys · CPC title

• C23C22/34

  containing fluorides or complex fluorides · CPC title

• H01M8/0215

  Glass; Ceramic materials · CPC title

• H01M8/1004

  characterised by membrane-electrode assemblies [MEA] (H01M8/12 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C23C28/04 Primary

  only coatings of inorganic non-metallic material · CPC title