Teer Coatings Limited Coatings for Fuel Cells & Hydrogen Applications

1. 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 www.teercoatings.co.uk

2. 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 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 ISO:9002 2001 MoST Patent 1999 +2nd Building 1999 UK Pat CFUBMSIP 1994 US Pat CFUBMSIP 1996 Larger Premises 1992 Closed Field System 1987 1st Prod Equip Sale 1989 Founded 1982 Coating Services (Hartlebury) 1985

4. 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.

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 (~ 10-17 m3N-1m-1) • electrically conducting (like graphite) – high sp2 content • conventional process, ~2µm takes several hrs

16. 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. 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 Summary & Conclusions

22. 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! Acknowledgements

23. For more information please contact: Teer Coatings Limited, West Stone House, Berry Hill Industrial Estate, Droitwich, Worcs, WR9 9AS, UK. Tel: +44(0)870 220 3910; Fax: +44(0)870 220 3911 www.teercoatings.co.uk

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