Towards mass applications: A review on the challenges and developments in metallic bipolar plates for PEMFC

The industrial applications of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) technology have attracted tremendous capitals and research attention in the last ten years. However, there are still many bottlenecking problems before the progress triumphs. Among them, a core challenge is the improvement of bipolar plates (BPs). As a key component of PEMFC, the BPs undertake the crucial functions of distributing reactant gases and cooling medium, collecting the electricity generated, exporting waste products, etc. Due to the unique advantages of ultra-thin, high strength, easy-to-mass-produce, etc., metallic BPs have been considered as the promising solution for the automotive and aerospace application scenarios with a strong requirement of power density. However, many challenges remain to be conquered in metallic BPs to fully meet all the requirements in those industrial applications such as corrosion, toxic ion emission and fabrication. The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the important researches in recent years dealing with the most critical problems of metallic BPs before industrial applications. The future studying directions in material and processing methods development are also given towards the wide application of metallic BP PEMFCs.