• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.98-107
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• 2004

Modified Ni/YSZ cermets for high temperature electrolysis were synthesized by dry or wet mechanical alloying methods. The Ni/YSZ composit particle was directly fabricated from the ball milling of Ni and YSZ powder or obtained from the reduction of NiO/YSZ particle after the ball milling of NiO and YSZ. In the case of the NiO/YSZ composite particle, the dry milling increased the average particle size whereas the wet milling decreased the size. The dry milling showed that fine YSZ particles were distributed over large Ni surfaces while Ni and YSZ particles similar in size were well mixed in the wet milling method. These features were the same in the Ni/YSZ composite particle prepared from Ni and YSZ powders. The electrical conductivity of the wet-milled Ni/YSZ cermet showed the highest value of $2{\times}10^2S/cm$ among the specimens and this value was increased to $1.4\times10^4S/cm$ after the sintering at $900^\circ{C}$ for 1 h.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.289-294
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• 2010

Ni-YSZ (Yttria Stabilized Zirconia) composite powders for SOFC were fabricated by glycine nitrate process. $ZrO(NO_3)_2{\cdot}2H_2O$, $Y(NO_3)_3{\cdot}6H_2O$, $Ni(NO_3)_2{\cdot}6H_2O$ and glycine were chosen as the starting materials. The structural properties of the sintered Ni-YSZ cermets have been investigated with respect to the volume contents of Ni. A porous microstructure consisting of homogeneously distributed Ni and YSZ phases together with well-connected grains was observed. The sintered Ni-YSZ cermets showed a porous microstructure consists of homogeneously distributed Ni and YSZ phases and the grains were well-connected. It was found that the open porosity is sensitive to the volume content of Ni. The Ni-YSZ cermet containing 35 vol% Ni seems to be suitable for the electrode material of SOFC since it provides sufficient open porosity higher than 30%.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.430-436
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• 2011

Joining of NiO-YSZ to 316 stainless steel was carried out with B-Ni2 brazing alloy (3 wt% Fe, 4.5 wt% Si, 3.2 wt% B, 7 wt% Cr, Ni-balance, m.p. 971-$999^{\circ}C$) to seal the NiO-YSZ anode/316 stainless steel interconnect structure in a SOFC. In the present research, interfacial (chemical) reactions during brazing at the NiO-YSZ/316 stainless steel interconnect were enhanced by the two processing methods, a) addition of an electroless nickel plate to NiO-YSZ as a coating or b) deposition of titanium layer onto NiO-YSZ by magnetron plasma sputtering method, with process variables and procedures optimized during the pre-processing. Brazing was performed in a cold-wall vacuum furnace at $1080^{\circ}C$. Post-brazing interfacial morphologies between NiO-YSZ and 316 stainless steel were examined by SEM and EDS methods. The results indicate that B-Ni2 brazing filler alloy was fused fully during brazing and continuous interfacial layer formation depended on the method of pre-coating NiO-YSZ. The inter-diffusion of elements was promoted by titanium-deposition: the diffusion reaction thickness of the interfacial area was reduced to less than 5 ${\mu}m$ compared to 100 ${\mu}m$ for electroless nickel-deposited NiO-YSZ cermet.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.12 s.295
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• pp.764-767
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• 2006

Ni/YSZ $(Y_2O_3-stabilized\;ZrO_2)$ composite as an electrode component for High Temperature Electrolysis (HTE) was fabricated by mechanical alloying method using Ni and YSZ powders. Characterization of the synthesized composite was investigated with various analysis tools, including XRD, SEM and PSA, and a self-supporting planar unit cell prepared with the Ni/YSZ composite was prepared to study the electrochemical reactions for the production of hydrogen. The Ni/YSZ cermet is composed of crystalline Ni and YSZ, in a sub-micro scale, and has an even distribution without aggregated particles. In addition, under an electrochemical reaction, the unit cell showed an $H_2$ evolution rate from steam of 14 Nml/min and $600mA/cm^2$ of current density at the electrode.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.807-814
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• 2008

The Cu-Ni-YSZ cermet anodes for direct use of methane in solid oxide fuel cells have been fabricated by electroplating Cu into the porous Ni-YSZ cermet anode. The uniform distribution of Cu in the Ni-YSZ anode could be obtained via pulse electroplating in the aqueous solution mixture of $CuSO_4{\cdot}5H_{2}O$ and ${H_2}{SO_4}$ for 30 min with 0.05 A of average applied current. The power density ($0.17\;Wcm^{-2}$) of a single cell with a Cu-Ni-YSZ anode was shown to be slightly lower in methane at $700^{\circ}C$, compared with the power density ($0.28\;Wcm^{-2}$) of a single cell with a Ni-YSZ anode. However, the performance of the Ni-YSZ anode-supported single cell was abruptly degraded over 21 h because of carbon deposition, whereas the Cu-Ni-YSZ anode-supported single cell showed the enhanced durability upto 52 h.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.7 s.290
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• pp.402-407
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• 2006

NiO/YSZ(70 wt%NiO) composite powders were prepared by ball-milling of 8YSZ and NiO precursors, dried and then followed by calcination. The approach was to combine acidic $Ni(NO_3)_2{\cdot}6H_2O$ and basic $2NiCO_3{\cdot}3Ni(OH)_2{\cdot}4H_2O$ via acid-base reaction as a mixed NiO precursor. Their effects were studied in the aspects of DSC, microstructure, porosity, and electrical conductivity. Ni/YSZ composite of 1N9C (1 mole NiO from the nitrate and 9 moles of NiO from the carbonate) was prepared by consolidation at $1400^{\circ}C$ for 3 h, and then followed by reduction at $1000^{\circ}C$ for 3 h under flowing of 6% $H_2/N_2$. It showed a homogeneous microstructure with ${\sim}20%$ porosity and 1880 S/cm at $1000^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.372-378
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• 2005

Ni/YSZ ($Y_2O_3$-stabilized $ZrO_2$) composite powder for a cathode material in high temperature electrolysis(HTE) was synthesized by a mechanical alloying method with Ni and YSZ powder. Microstructure of the composite and cell thickness for HTE reaction has been analyzed with various techniques of XRD, SEM to investigate effects of fabrication conditions. Employing the composite material, furthermore, the unit cell for HTE has been studied to evolve hydrogen from water. XRD patterns showed that the composites after wet mechanical alloying were composed of respective nano-sized crystalline Ni and YSZ. While ethanol as additive for mechanical alloying increased to $20\;{\mu}m$ of average particle size of the composites, alpha-terpineol effectively decreased to sub-micro size of that. This study has been found out the evolution of hydrogen by HTE reaction employing the fabricated cathode material, showing 1.4 ml/min of $H_2$ generation rate as increasing $20\;{\mu}m$ of cathode thickness.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.61-64
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• 2007

Ni/YSZ ($Y_{2}O_{3}-stabilized$ $ZrO_{2}$), Cu/YSZ and CuO/YSZ composite powder for a cathode material in high temperature electrolysis (HTE) was synthesized by a mechanical alloying method with Ni (or Cu, CuO, Co) and YSZ powder. Microstructure of the composite for HTE reaction has been analyzed with various techniques of XRD, SEM to investigate effects of fabrication conditions. And conductivity of electrode was measured, Cu/YSZ cermet showed the higher electrical conductivity value than Ni/YSZ.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.12 s.295
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• pp.768-774
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• 2006

The microstructure of Ni-YSZ cermets was controlled with fine and coarse starting powders (NiO and YSZ) to obtain a optimum strong and conductive tubular anode support for SOFCs. Three types of cermets with different microstructures, i.e., coarse Ni-fine YSZ, fine Ni-coarse YSZ, and fine Ni-fine YSZ, were fabricated to investigate their electrical and mechanical properties. The cermets from fine NiO powder showed high electrical conductivity due to the enhanced percolation of Ni particles. The cermet by foe Ni and coarse YSZ showed excellent electrical conductivity (>1000 S/cm) despite its high porosity $(\sim40%)$ but it showed poor mechanical strength due to the lack of percolation by YSZ particles and due to large pores. Thus fine NiO and YSZ powders were used to make strong and conductive Ni-YSZ support tube by extrusion. The microstructure of the anode tube was modified by the amount of polymeric additives and carbon black, a pore former. Ni-YSZ tube (porosity $\sim34%$) with the finer microstructure showed better performance both in electrical conductivity (>1000 S/cm) and fracture strength $(\sim140\;MPa)$. Either flat or circular NiO-YSZ tubes with the length from 20 to 40cm were successfully fabricated with the optimized composition of materials and polymeric additives.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.243-247
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• 2014

Spherical NiO-YSZ particles were synthesized by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP). The morphology of the synthesized particles can be modified by controlling parameters such as precursor pH, carrier-gas flow-rate, and temperature of the heating zone. The synthesized spherical NiO-YSZ particles have rough surface morphology at high carrier-gas flow-rates due to rapid gas exhaustion and insufficient particle ordering. The Ni-YSZ cermet anode synthesized by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis at a flow rate of l L/min, with precursor solution at pH4, showed a higher maximum power density of 256 $mW/cm^2$ compared to a conventionally mixed Ni-YSZ anode (185 $mW/cm^2$) at $800^{\circ}C$. While the area-specific resistance of conventionally mixed Ni-YSZ anodes increases gradually with operation time (indicating performance degradation), the Ni-YSZ anode synthesized by USP does not exhibit any performance degradation, even after 500 h.