Preparation And Electrical Performance Characterization Of The Flower-like NiO Powders Modified By YSZ

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) research focus is to make its working temperaturedrop to650~800℃, intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC).However, with the loss of the working temperature, the research work of anodematerial and anode microstructure especially nanometer microstructure which isunder the condition of the intermediate temperature is particularly important.The flower-like NiO powders was prepared by the homogeneous precipitationmethod. The crystal phase and the flower piece of the flower-like NiO powdersgradually grew up with the increase of temperature,when the calcination temperatureis300℃,400℃and600℃. However, when the calcination temperature rose again,the phase and crystal structure of the powders did not change, but flower-likestructure could become smaller. The flower-like NiO powders had larger specificsurface area and the size of holes in the flower piece, in order to petals structurecollapse and even appear serious phenomenon of reunion at900℃.To this end, theflower-like NiO powders modified by yttrium stabilized zirconia (YSZ) was putforward by the paper,further.And the influence of the morphology of the flower-likeNiO modified by YSZ was compared in the condition of using the different solvents(distilled water and ethanol).The phase, microstructure, grain size and so on of thepowders were characterized by TG-DTA (thermogravimetry and differential thermalanalysis), XRD(X-ray diffraction), SEM(scanning electron microscope), EDS(energydispersive spectrometer) and TEM(Transmission electron microscopy), respectively.The result shown that the quantity which was YSZ nanoparticles modified on theflower-like NiO powders by using distilled water as the solvent was more than that ofusing anhydrous ethanol as the solvent, so that the flower morphology of theflower-like NiO-YSZ was maintained when was using distilled water as the solvent,and shrunk even collapsed when was using ethanol as the solvent at800℃~900℃.Further, the electrochemical performance of electrolyte-supported single cellswhich were prepared using commercial and granular NiO powders and the flower-likeNiO-YSZ powders which were using the different solvents as the anodes, were testedby electrochemical workstation, respectively. The results shown that the maximumpower density of the single cell was prepared using the flower-like NiO-YSZ powersby using water as the solvent as the anodes was0.94W/cm2,0.151W/cm2and0.376W/cm2at750℃,800℃and850℃and the polarization resistance was2.496·cm2,1.589·cm2and0.814·cm2, respectively. And the maximum powerdensity of the single cell was prepared using the flower-like NiO-YSZ powers by using ethanol as the solvent as the anodes was0.036W/cm2,0.127W/cm2and0.350W/cm2at750℃,800℃and850℃and the polarization resistance was2.943·cm2,1.917·cm2and1.082·cm2, respectively.And the maximum powerdensity of the single cell was prepared using commercial NiO powers as the anodeswas0.024W/cm2,0.072W/cm2and0.149W/cm2at750℃,800℃and850℃andthepolarization resistance was4.265·cm2,2.306·cm2and1.688·cm2, respectively.