The investigation of the electrochemical characteristics of the fluorine doped tin oxide (SnOx:F) and fluorine doped zinc tin oxide (ZnSnOx:F) was carried out in the simulated PEMFC environment and bare stainless steel 316 was used as a reference. The results showed that the ZnSnOx:F coating enhanced both the corrosion resistance and interfacial contact resistance (ICR). The corrosion current for ZnSnOx:F was 1.2 mu A cm(-2) which was much lower than that of bare stainless steel of 50.16 mu A cm(-2). The ZnSnOx:F coated film had the smallest corrosion current due to the formation of a tight surface morphology with very few pin-holes. The ZnSnOx:F coated film exhibited the highest values of the cell voltage and power density due to its having the lowest ICR values. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.