Stainless steels have received wide attention as a substitute material for bipolar plates in high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC). In the present work, the CrN, CrAlN and multilayer CrN/CrAlN coatings were deposited on 316L SS to increase the corrosion resistance and decrease the interfacial contact resistance. The deposited coatings exhibited face centered cubic phase structure and it was verified from the X-ray diffraction pattern. X-ray photo electron spectroscopy results showed the formation of both CrN and CrAlN layers on 316L SS. CrN/CrAlN coating is more helpful in water management due to low surface roughness and high contact angle in the HT-PEMFC environment. The corrosion resistance behavior of all the samples were studied in 85% H₃PO₄ solution at 140 °C purged with H₂ (HT-PEMFC anode) and O₂ (HT-PEMFC cathode) gases. The results showed that all the coatings considerably improved the performance of 316L SS and superior corrosion resistance was observed for CrN/CrAlN multilayer coating, whose protective efficiency was 98.12% and 96.14% in the two simulated HT-PEMFC environments. The results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopic studies demonstrated higher impedance for CrN/CrAlN coating. Surface morphological studies performed after corrosion studies revealed that protection ability of CrN/CrAlN coating still remained acceptable. A very low interfacial contact resistance value of 6 mΩ cm² at 140 N/cm² was observed for CrN/CrAlN coating. Moreover, after corrosion studies, the interfacial contact resistance value of CrN/CrAlN coated 316L was much lower than that of CrN and CrAlN coatings due to the increased oxidation resistance. The maximum power density of about 0.93 W/cm² at 2 A/cm² and output voltage of 0.96 V was observed for CrN/CrAlN coating.

不锈钢作为高温质子交换膜燃料电池（HT-PEMFC）双极板的替代材料受到广泛关注。在目前的工作中，CrN、CrAlN 和多层 CrN/CrAlN 涂层沉积在 316L SS 上以提高耐腐蚀性并降低界面接触电阻。沉积的涂层表现出面心立方相结构，并由 X 射线衍射图证实。X 射线光电子能谱结果显示在 316L SS 上形成了 CrN 和 CrAlN 层。由于 HT-PEMFC 环境中的低表面粗糙度和高接触角，CrN/CrAlN 涂层更有助于水管理。研究了所有样品在85% H ₃ PO _{4 中}的耐腐蚀性能在 140 °C 下用 H ₂（HT-PEMFC 阳极）和 O ₂（HT-PEMFC 阴极）气体吹扫的溶液。结果表明，所有涂层均显着提高了 316L SS 的性能，并且观察到 CrN/CrAlN 多层涂层具有优异的耐腐蚀性能，其在两种模拟 HT-PEMFC 环境中的防护效率分别为 98.12% 和 96.14%。电化学阻抗光谱研究的结果表明 CrN/CrAlN 涂层具有更高的阻抗。腐蚀研究后进行的表面形态研究表明，CrN/CrAlN 涂层的保护能力仍然可以接受。在 140 N/cm ^{2 下}具有 6 mΩ cm ^{2 的}极低界面接触电阻值观察到 CrN/CrAlN 涂层。此外，经过腐蚀研究，CrN/CrAlN 涂层 316L 的界面接触电阻值远低于 CrN 和 CrAlN 涂层，因为它具有更高的抗氧化性。对于 CrN/CrAlN 涂层，观察到在 2 A/cm ²和输出电压为 0.96 V 时的最大功率密度约为 0.93 W/cm ²。