Composite ceramic materials as anodes for solid oxide fuel cells

In this thesis, a composite material of La0.8Sr0.2Cr 1-yXyO3 (LSC), Ce0.9Gd0.1O 1.95 (GDC) and Ni was proposed to replace the standard solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) composite anode of Ni metal with Zr0.92Y0.08O 2 (YSZ). Ni-YSZ cermet anodes provide high performance for SOFCs operating on humidified hydrogen as a fuel. The anode performance degrades irreversibly, however, during reduction-oxidation (redox) cycling and due to carbon deposition on the anode when operating on hydrocarbon fuels without the addition of a reforming species (e.g., H2O, CO2). The LSC-GDC-Ni anode has the potential to avoid these drawbacks due to the very low Ni content, which is achieved by replacing the majority of the nickel with LSC, a ceramic electronic conductor.; SOFCs were tested from 500-800°C using GDC electrolyte-supported cells with LSCF-GDC cathodes. Current-voltage and impedance measurements were used to characterize the anode performance in hydrogen, methane and propane fuels. The anode atmosphere was cycled between hydrogen and air during operation to test the redox stability of the anode. Power densities of ≈150 mW/cm 2 were achieved in H2 at 750°C, and switching to methane or propane resulted in a ∼25% decrease in power density. The power density in H2 was comparable to an identically prepared Ni-GDC anode on GDC. No carbon deposition was observed for an LSC-GDC-Ni anode after > 3h operation in propane, while the Ni-GDC anode rapidly failed. Seven redox cycles at 750°C resulted in only minimal performance loss for an SOFC with an LSC-GDC-Ni anode.; Several studies were conducted to determine favorable compositions and processing parameters to obtain more active LSC-GDC-Ni anodes. The addition of 5 wt.% NiO to the anode was sufficient to catalyze the anode reaction for fine microstructures formed at 1100°C. The results agree well with a proposed reaction mechanism where adsorption/dissociation of H2 on the anode surface is co-limiting with surface diffusion of hydrogen species. The addition of Ni catalyzes both of these limiting reactions.; These results indicate the composite ceramic material LSC-GDC-Ni has promise as a high performance, redox-stable, direct hydrocarbon SOFC anode.