• Ceramist
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.378-387
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• 2018

The optimal fabrication conditions for $Gd_{0.1}Ce_{0.9}O_{2-{\delta}}$(GDC) buffer layer and $La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Co_{0.2}Fe_{0.8}O_{3-{\delta}}$ (LSCF) cathode on 1mol% $CeO_2-10mol%\;Sc_2O_3$ stabilized $ZrO_2$ (CeScSZ) electrolyte were investigated for application of IT-SOFCs. GDC buffer layer was used in order to prevent undesired chemical reactions between LSCF and CeScSZ. These experiments were carried out with $5{\times}5cm^2$ anode supported unit cells to investigate the tendencies of electrochemical performance, Microstructure development and interface reaction between LSCF/GDC/CeScSZ along with the variations of GDC buffer layer thickness, sintering temperatures of GDC and LSCF were checked, respectively. Electrochemical performance was analyzed by DC current-voltage measurement and AC impedance spectroscopy. Microstructure and interface reaction were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Although the interfacial reaction between these materials could not be perfectly inhibited, We found that the cell, in which $6{\mu}m$ GDC interlayer sintered at $1200^{\circ}C$ and LSCF sintered at $1000^{\circ}C$ were applied, showed good interfacial adhesions and effective suppression of Sr, thereby resulting in fairly good performance with power density of $0.71W/cm^2$ at $800^{\circ}C$ and 0.7V.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.5 s.288
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• pp.270-276
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• 2006

LSGM(($La_xSr_{1-x})(Ga_yMg_{1-y})O_3$) electrolyte is known to show very serious interfacial reaction with other unit cell components, especially with an anode. Such an interfacial reaction induced the phase instability of constituent component and deterioration of the unit cell performance, which become the most challenging issues in LSGM-based SOFCs. In this study, we fabricated LSGM($La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}Ga_{0.83}Mg_{0.17}O_x$) electrolyte supported-type cell in order to avoid such interfacial problem by lowering the heat-treatment temperature of the electrode fabrication. According to the microstructural and phase analysis, there was no serious interfacial reaction at both electrolyte/anode and electrolyte/cathode interfaces. Moreover, from the electrochemical characterization of the unit cell performance, there was no distinct deterioration of the open cell voltage as well as an internal cell resistance. These results demonstrate the most critical point to be concerned in LSGM-based SOFC is either to find a proper electrode material which will not give any interfacial reaction with LSGM electrolyte or to properly adjust the processing variables for unit cell fabrication, to reduce the interfacial reaction.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.138.2-138.2
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• 2010

Scandium-doped zirconium, ScSZ-based electrolyte, provides higher oxygen conductivity than YSZ and nano-based electrolyte materials are ideal for fabricating thin film electrolyte membrane of SOFC unit cell. Moreover, it may be applied to anode and cathode as well as electrolyte as ionic conductor. In this report, nano-based ScSZ-based electrolyte powder was prepared by co-precipitation synthesis. The particle size, surface area and morphology of the powder were observed by SEM and BET. Thin film electrolyte of under $10{\mu}m$ was fabricated by tape casting and co-firing using the synthesized ScSZ-based powders, and ionic conductivity and gas permeability of electrolyte film were evaluated. Finally, the SOFC unit cell was fabricated using the anode-supported electrolyte prepared by a tape casting method and co-sintering. Electrochemical evaluations of the SOFC unit cell, including measurements such as power density and impedance, were performed and analyzed.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.189-192
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• 2014

Yttria-stablized zirconia (YSZ) is the most commonly used electrolyte material, but the reduction in working temperature leads to insufficient ionic conductivity. Ceria based electrolytes (GDC) are more attractive in terms of conductivity at low temperature, but these materials are well known to be reducible at very low oxygen partial pressure. The reduction of electrolyte resistivity is necessary to overcome cell performance losses. So, thin YSZ/GDC bilayer technology seems suitable for decreasing the electrolyte resistance at lower operating temperatures. Bilayer electrolytes composed of a galdolinium-doped $CeO_2$ ($Ce_{0.9}Gd_{0.1}O_{1.95}$, GDC) layer and yttria-stabilized $ZrO_2$ (YSZ) layer with various thicknesses were deposited by RF sputtering and E-beam evaporation. The bilayer electrolytes were deposited between porous Ni-GDC anode and LSM cathode for anode-supported single cells. Thin film structure and surface morphology were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), using $CuK{\alpha}$-radiation in the range of 2ce morphol$^{\circ}C$. The XRD patterns exhibit a well-formed cubic fluorite structure, and sharp lines of XRD peaks can be observed, which indicate a single solid solution. The morphology and size of the prepared particles were investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The performance of the cells was evaluated over $500{\sim}800^{\circ}C$, using humidified hydrogen as fuel, and air as oxidant.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.955-965
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• 2014

Transport phenomena of reactant and product are directly linked to intrinsic inhomogeneous random configurations of catalyst layer (CL) that consist of ionomer, carbon-supported catalyst (Pt/C), and pores. Hence, electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of Pt/C is dominated by geometrical morphology of mass transport path. Undoubtedly these ECSAs are key factor of total fuel cell efficiency. In this study, non-deterministic micro-scale CLs were randomly generated by Monte Carlo method and implemented with the percolation process. To ensure valid inference about Pt/C catalyst utilization, 600 samples were chosen as the number of necessary samples with 95% confidence level. Statistic results of 600 samples generated under particular condition (20vol% Pt/C, 30vol% ionomer, 50vol% pore, and 20nm particle diameter) reveal only 18.2%~81.0% of Pt/C can construct ECSAs with mean value of 53.8%. This study indicates that the catalyst utilization in fuel cell CLs cannot be identical notwithstanding the same design condition.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.195-198
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• 2010

It has been considered to apply GDC ($Gd_{0.1}Ce_{0.9}O_{1-X}$) for low-temperature SOFC electrolytes because it has higher ionic conductivity than YSZ at low temperature. However, open circuit voltage with using GDC ($Gd_{0.1}Ce_{0.9}O_{1-X}$) electrolyte in SOFCs, becomes lower than using YSZ (8 mol% Yttria stabilized Zirconia) electrolyte because GDC has electronic conductivity. In this work, the effect of changing GDC electrolyte thickness on the open circuit voltage has been investigated. Ni-GDC anode-supported unit cells were fabricated as follows. Mixed NiO-GDC powders were pressed and pre-sintered at $1200^{\circ}C$. And then, GDC electrolyte material was dip-coated on the anode and sintered at $1400^{\circ}C$. Finally the LSCF-GDC cathode material was screen-printed on the electrolyte and sintered at $1000^{\circ}C$. Electrolyte thickness was controlled by the number of dip-coating times. Open circuit voltage was measured depending on electrolyte thickness at $650^{\circ}C$ and found that the thicker GDC electrolyte was, the better OCV was.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.274-278
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• 2002

Discrete-variational(DV)-$X{\alpha}$ method was applied to investigate the electronic structures of spinel- type manganese oxide which is well known to the high performance adsorbent or cathode material for lithium ion. The results of DOS(density of states) and Mulliken population analysis showed that Li was nearly fully ionized and interactions between Mn and O were strong covalent bond. The effective charge of Li and Mn was +0.77 and +1.44 respectively and the overlap population between Mn and O was 0.252 in $LiMn_2O_4$. These results from DV-X$\alpha$ method were well coincided with the experimental result by XPS analysis and supported the feasibility of theoretical interpretation for the $LiMn_2O_4$ compound.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.231-238
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• 2001

Electrocatalytic activity of palladium for hydrogen oxidation and reduction was studied using AC impedance method. The system under study was arranged in electrolytic mode consisting of Pd electrode under study, Pt counter electrode and Nafion electrolyte between them. Two types of Pd electrodes were used - carbon-supported Pd (Pd/C) and Pd foil electrode. Pd/C anode contacting pure hydrogen showed a steady decrease of charge transfer resistance with the increase of anodic overpotential, which is an opposite trend to that found with Pd foil anode. But Pd foil cathode also exhibited a decrease of the resistance with the increase of cathodic overpotential. The relationship between imposition of overpotential and subsequent change of the charge transfer resistance is determined by the ratio of the rate of faradaic process to the rate of mass transportation; if mass transfer limitation holds, increase of overpotential accompanies the increase of charge transfer resistance. Regardless of the physical type of Pd electrode, the anode contacting hydrogen/oxygen gas mixture did not reveal any independent arc originated from local anodic oxygen reduction.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.325-330
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• 2015

Performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), in comparison with that under hydrogen fuel, were investigated under direct internal reforming conditions. Anode supported cells were fabricated with an Ni+YSZ anode, YSZ electrolyte, and LSM+YSZ cathode for the present work. Measurements of I-V curves and impedance were conducted with S/C (steam to carbon) ratio of ~ 2 at $800^{\circ}C$. The outlet gas was analyzed using gas chromatography under open circuit condition; the methane conversion rate was calculated and found to be ~ 90% in the case of low flow rate of methane and steam. Power density values were comparable for both cases (hydrogen fuel and internal steam reforming of methane), and in the latter case the cell performance was improved, with a decrease in the flow rate of methane with steam, because of the higher conversion rate. The present work indicates that the short-term performance of SOFCs with conventional Ni+YSZ anodes, in comparison with that under hydrogen fuel, is acceptable under internal reforming condition with the optimized fuel flow rate and S/C ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.483-488
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• 2016

Anode supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), consisting of Ni+YSZ anode, YSZ electrolyte, and LSM+YSZ cathode, were fabricated and constant current tested with direct internal reforming of methane (steam to carbon ratio ~ 2) as well as hydrogen fuel at $800^{\circ}C$. The cell, operated under direct internal reforming conditions, showed relatively rapid degradation (~ 1.6 % voltage drop) for 95 h; the cells with hydrogen fuel operated stably for 170 h. Power density and impedance spectra were also measured before and after the tests, and post-test analyses were conducted on the anode parts using SEM / EDS. The results indicate that the performance degradation of the cell operated with internal reforming can be attributed to carbon depositions on the anode, which increase the resistance against anode gas transport and deactivate the Ni catalyst. Thus, the present study shows that direct internal reforming SOFCs cannot be stably operated even under the condition of S/C ratio of ~ 2, probably due to non-uniform mixture (methane and steam) gas flow.