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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interfacial conductivity and corrosion resistance of the Ni–P/Ti4O7 composite coating that is deposited on a carbon steel substrate as bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Design/methodology/approach: The Ni–P/Ti4O7 coating was prepared by electroless plating. Scanning electron microscopy, white light interference, energy dispersive spectrometry and X-ray diffraction were used, respectively, to study the surface morphology, chemical composition and phase composition of coated samples. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, potentiodynamic and potentiostatic polarization were used to test the electrochemical performance and corrosion behavior. The interfacial contact resistance (ICR) was measured via the standard method. Findings: The surface of the Ni–P/Ti4O7 coating is complete and dense and without obvious defects. The electrochemical test results show that the Ni–P/Ti4O7 coating provides better corrosion resistance than the Ni–P coating and substrate. Compared with the Ni–P coating, the ICR of the Ni–P/Ti4O7 coating is lower by about 82.7%. This is because the coating has more conductive contact points. The more exciting thing is that the ICR of the Ni–P/Ti4O7 coating only increases to 12.38 mΩ·cm2 after 5 h of polarization. Originality/value: This paper provides a method for achieving surface modification of metal bipolar plates. Introducing Ti4O7 particles in the Ni–P layer reduces the contact resistance before and after polarization while ensuring good corrosion resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency is still the obstacle for long-term real-time wireless ECG monitoring. In this paper, a digital compressed sensing- (CS-) based single-spot Bluetooth ECG node is proposed to deal with the challenge in wireless ECG application. A periodic sleep/wake-up scheme and a CS-based compression algorithm are implemented in a node, which consists of ultra-low-power analog front-end, microcontroller, Bluetooth 4.0 communication module, and so forth. The efficiency improvement and the node’s specifics are evidenced by the experiments using the ECG signals sampled by the proposed node under daily activities of lay, sit, stand, walk, and run. Under using sparse binary matrix (SBM), block sparse Bayesian learning (BSBL) method, and discrete cosine transform (DCT) basis, all ECG signals were essentially undistorted recovered with root-mean-square differences (PRDs) which are less than 6%. The proposed sleep/wake-up scheme and data compression can reduce the airtime over energy-hungry wireless links, the energy consumption of proposed node is 6.53 mJ, and the energy consumption of radio decreases 77.37%. Moreover, the energy consumption increase caused by CS code execution is negligible, which is 1.3% of the total energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A micro-arc oxidation alumina (MOA) support filled with a CsH2PO4 proton conductor was investigated as an inorganic composite electrolyte for a H2/O2 solid-acid fuel cell (SAFC). The MOA support was polycrystalline and contained α- and γ-Al2O3 phases; while, the proton conductor CsH2PO4 formed an interlaced network within the MOA support. The single-module SAFC using the fabricated MOA/CsH2PO4 membrane delivered a peak power of ∼38.5 m W cm−2 and a proton conductivity of ∼2.1 m S cm−1 at a low temperature (25 °C). Compared to a SAFC using an anodic alumina membrane composite electrolyte (AAM/CsH2PO4 SAFC), which displayed rapid degradation, the SAFC using the MOA/CsH2PO4 composite electrolyte showed improved stability with cycling. This was attributed to the crystalline α-Al2O3 phase that was part of the MOA support that had increased the chemical resistance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Phytic acid increases compactness of self-assembled nanoparticle (SANP) film. [•] SANP-P layer in composite film indicates good barrier property against corrosion. [•] Improved adhesion of composite film obtained in a corrosive service environment. [•] SANP film with phytic acid (SANP-P) shows high thermal stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A composite three-layer film was prepared on AZ31B Mg alloy for corrosion protection by means of plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), self-assembled nanophase particle (SANP) and electroless nickel (EN) plating. Structure and corrosion protection were characterized by various analytical instruments and electrochemical methods. Experiment results indicated that the composite film consisted of compact EN plating and coherent bilayer film, which provided effective protection for Mg alloy against galvanic corrosion and long-term immersion corrosion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Protective composite coatings were prepared on magnesium alloy AZ91D by micro-arc oxidation (MAO) treatment plus a top coating with sealing agent using multi-immersion technique under low-pressure conditions. The corrosion resistance of AZ91D alloy with composite coatings was superior evidently to that with merely MAO film. SEM observations revealed that the sealing agent was integrated with MAO film by physically interlocking; therewith covered uniformly the surface as well as penetrated into pores and micro-cracks of MAO film. The anti-corrosion properties in 3.5% NaCl solution of the composite coatings were evaluated by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization measurements. Based on the results of chronopotentiometric (E ∼ t) and EIS measurements for long time immersion in 3.5% NaCl solution, appropriate equivalent circuits for the composite coatings system were proposed. It follows that due to the blocking effect of the sealing agent in pores and cracks in MAO film, the composite coatings can suppress the corrosion process by holding back the transfer or diffusion of electrolyte and corrosion products between the composite coatings and solution during immersion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]