1. Coatings for Fuel Cells & Hydrogen Applications
Teer Coatings Limited
Coatings for Fuel Cells & Hydrogen Applications
Kevin Cooke
Teer Coatings Ltd,
West Stone House,
Berry Hill Industrial Estate, Droitwich, Worcestershire,
WR9 9AS, UK

2. Introduction to Teer Coatings Ltd:
Outline of Presentation
Introduction to Teer Coatings Ltd:
TCL’s proprietary technology: Closed Field Unbalanced Magnetron Sputter Ion Plating (CFUBMSIP)
Applications in Fuel Cells and Hydrogen
Example: coatings for PEM cell electrodes
TCL’s Low Carbon related Collaborative Research
Summary & Conclusions
Acknowledgements

3. Company History Key Facts: Turnover Approaching £4-5M/yr
ISO:9001
2008
Key Facts:
Turnover Approaching £4-5M/yr
Equipment Sales Approaching £2-3M/yr
High Proportion of Export Sales
Now ~57 Employees
US Patent
Dymon-iC
2008
25 yrs!
2007
ISO:9001
2003
New
Factory
2004
+3rd Building
2001
MoST Patent 1999
ISO:9002
2001
UK Pat
CFUBMSIP 1994
+2nd Building
1999
US Pat
CFUBMSIP 1996
Larger
Premises
1992
Closed Field System
1987
1st Prod Equip
Sale
1989
Founded
1982
Coating Services
(Hartlebury)
1985

4. RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Company Structure
PRODUCTION COATINGS
15 Coating Systems
Automated cleaning, etc.
Single items to 10,000’s/wk
3 PRIMARY DIVISIONS:
Design & Manufacture
Coating & Test Equipment
Inc. “bespoke” designs
~17 Coating Systems
plus, range of Testing & Analysis Equipment
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
EQUIPMENT BUILDING

5. July 2009: Miba AG took a minority share (24.9%) of TCL
full ownership is expected by the end of 2010.
until then TCL remains a SME!
The Miba Group is a leading international company, of ~2600 employees, headquartered in Austria.
Miba is a leading strategic partner of the international engine and automotive industry.
Miba’s product portfolio includes sintered components, engine bearings, friction and coated materials.
TCL & HTC (Miba’s Coatings Competence Centre, with ~40 employees) will collaborate closely.

6. Routine Production Coatings:
Hard coatings, e.g. for cutting tools, etc.
e.g. single nitrides TiN, CrN… & alloy nitrides TiAlN, CrAlN, CrTiAlN…, oxides, multilayers, etc.
Self lubricating, low friction coatings for wear resistance
e.g. carbon based: TCL Graphit-iC™& Dymon-iC; and MoS2 based: TCL MoST™
Plus, coatings for corrosion resistance, electrical conductivity, optical properties, etc.
Coatings typically 1-3µm thick, but…
nm to mm thickness possible for special applications

7. Coatings: a continually expanding range….

8. ….for many different applications….
Gears, Bearings and other
Wear Components
Cutting Tools
Body Jewellery….!

9. ….including Coating of Powders & Grits!
Coating sources project into barrel
Barrel Coater
(Load Locked)
Powder exposed to coating flux

10. Closed Field Magnetron Sputtering
Unbalanced field.
Field lines “closed” with another magnetron.
Plasma confined around substrates.
Electrons loss to chamber walls minimised.
Increased ionisation.
Dense, adherent coatings
Typical energies 20-30eV, ideal for high quality film growth.
Closed Field Magnetron Sputtering was discovered by Teer Coatings
Unbalanced magnetrons have stronger outer magnets, allowing excess field to emerge laterally. Some of the plasma is able to “leak” away, bathing the substrate with an additional energetic flux.
When magnets of opposite polarity are arranged in a chamber the lateral fields will link and can form a “magnetic bottle”
This retains electrons in the chamber where they can cause further ionisation, increasing the efficiency of plasma generation.
Enhanced energetic bombardment of the substrate improves the adhesion and density of the coatings.

11. FC&H2 Example - coatings for bipolar plates:
TCL’s magnetron sputtering technology is
industrially qualified
ideal for the deposition of thin, dense, well adhered, high quality coatings on a wide range of substrates (including metals and vacuum-stable polymers).
Product-specific results of TCL’s previous work in this field are obviously confidential to the customers concerned!
[V Fox: presented at - Manufacturing of Bipolar Plates event, Swerea IVF, Stockholm, 29th January 2008]

12. “Metallic” thin film coatings for bipolar plates:
dense, homogeneous coatings of metals are deposited at high rates
multiple elemental targets (typically 4 or 6)
alloys and/or graded compositions easily created
compounds (nitrides, oxides, etc.) can be synthesised by reactive deposition
reactive gas (e.g. N2) introduced during the deposition process
compound (e.g metal + nitrogen = MeN) formed in situ
automatic feed back control (reactive gas flow slaved to metal content of the plasma)

13. Transition metal nitrides (e.g. TiN, CrN etc.)
hard, dense and relatively inert
routine coating sources up to 1m (>2m demonstrated!)
metallic levels of electrical conductivity
excellent adhesion (Rockwell and scratch adhesion results on M42 tool steel substrate shown below)

14. New high rate magnetron deposition of TiN:
2 magnetrons (12.5kW each)
50 mins deposition: total thickness 3.36 μm
deposition rate 4 μm/hr  4x higher than from conventional magnetrons
hardness: 33 GPa
scratch adhesion – Lc>60N (i.e. very good)
So, achieved 4x increase in rate with no obvious deterioration in coating quality

15. Graphit-iC™ coatings
originally developed for demanding, high load bearing, tribological applications
contains ~5 at. % chromium
hardness H = 10 to 40 GPa (selectable);
Young’s modulus E* ~ 155 GPa
low coefficient of friction (<0.1)
very low specific wear rate (~ m3N-1m-1)
electrically conducting (like graphite) – high sp2 content
conventional process, ~2µm takes several hrs

16. 3-steps: in-situ ion cleaning
Graphit-iC™ Coating Process
3-steps:
in-situ ion cleaning
deposition of thin metallic Cr interlayer
deposition of C-Cr layer

18. Graphit-iC™ coatings for bipolar plates:
power input can be increased by up to 3x cf TCL’s “conventional” Graphit-iC coating process
deposition rates improved by 2 to 2.7x, say
here, 2-axis rotation improves coating uniformity. In-line systems with magnetrons sputtering simultaneously onto both sides of the plates could be used in a production process.
pure carbon or Graphit-iC coatings can be deposited at thickness ranging from <100nm to a few microns
coatings can be (have been) deposited with or without Cr adhesion layers
rates as high as ~5 µm/hour are already achievable for a stationary substrate (equivalent to 85nm per min)

19. TCL’s Collaborative Projects related to “Low Carbon”
HydroGEN
TP (’08-’11)
NECLASS
TP (’08-’10)
Low Cost PVs
TP (’08-’11)
PROSVACT
TP (’08-’11)
TSB
Projects
CLUSTERBEAM
MNT (’06-’09)
HYPNOMEM
TP (’06-’09)

20. Technology Programme projects include:
NECLASS: improving FC catalyst utilisation
HydroGEN: coatings for electrolysis
HYPNOMEM: thin film membranes for H2 purification
CLUSTERBEAM/PROSVACT: creating nano-clusters for model catalysts, etc.
Low cost Photovoltaics: cheap, PV materials by thin film, with improved spectral response & long life
TCL project leader
except for HydroGEN &NECLASS

21. TCL’s research portfolio includes relevant collaborative projects
Summary & Conclusions
PVD coatings have multiple potential applications in Fuel Cells and the Hydrogen Economy
Teer Coatings Limited offers relevant, industrially-qualified, thin film coatings
e.g. environmentally resistant, electrically conductive thin film coatings for electrode plates
TCL can support partners’ process and equipment needs, from R&D through to full production
TCL’s research portfolio includes relevant collaborative projects

22. Acknowledgements
The collaborative projects described above have benefited from DTI/Technology Strategy Board (MNT and Technology Programme) support.
HYPNOMEM was a joint feasibility project by Univ B’ham’s Metallurgy & Materials Department (Rex Harris, John Speight, David Book, Vicky Mann, Sean Fletcher, Jo Grant) and TCL (Joanne Hampshire).
Other project collaborators are too numerous to mention, but are gratefully acknowledged!

23. For more information please contact: Teer Coatings Limited,
West Stone House,
Berry Hill Industrial Estate,
Droitwich, Worcs, WR9 9AS, UK.
Tel: +44(0) ; Fax: +44(0)

24. Key Contacts: Paul Teer – Managing Director
Dennis Teer – Chairman/Technical Director
Dr Kevin Cooke – Collaborative Research Coord
Dr Glynn Dyson – Sales & Marketing Manager
Wayne Southall – Production Coatings Manager
Dr Joanne Hampshire – Special Coatings Manager