• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.70.1-70.1
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• 2012

In-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy studies of SOFC cathode materials will be discussed in this presentation. The mixed conducting perovskites (ABO3) containing rare and alkaline earth metals on the A-site and a transition metal on the B-site are commonly used as cathodes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). However, the details of the oxygen reduction reaction are still not clearly understood. The information about the type of adsorbed oxygen species and their concentration is important for a mechanistic understanding of the oxygen incorporation into these cathode materials. XPS has been widely used for the analysis of adsorbed species and surface structure. However, the conventional XPS experiments have the severe drawback to operate at room temperature and with the sample under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions, which is far from the relevant conditions of SOFC operation. The disadvantages of conventional XPS can be overcome to a large extent with a "high pressure" XPS setup installed at the BESSY II synchrotron. It allows sample depth profiling over 2 nm without sputtering by variation of the excitation energy, and most importantly measurements under a residual gas pressure in the mbar range. It is also well known that the catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction is very sensitive to their electrical conductivity and oxygen nonstoichiometry. Although the electrical conductivity of perovskite oxides has been intensively studied as a function of temperature or oxygen partial pressure (Po2), in-situ measurements of the conductivity of these materials in contact with the electrolyte as a SOFC configuration have little been reported. In order to measure the in-plane conductivity of an electrode film on the electrolyte, a substrate with high resistance is required for excluding the leakage current of the substrate. It is also hardly possible to measure the conductivity of cracked thin film by electrical methods. In this study, we report the electrical conductivity of perovskite $La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}CoO_{3-{\delta}}$ (LSC) thin films on yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte quantitatively obtained by in-situ IR spectroscopy. This method enables a reliable measurement of the electronic conductivity of the electrodes as part of the SOFC configuration regardless of leakage current to the substrate and cracks in the film.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.117-121
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• 2008

In this study, thin YSZ film was prepared by electrostatic spray deposition. The morphology of thin film was strongly influenced by precursor solution and substrate temperature. Especially, dense YSZ film was obtained at the substrate temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The YSZ film growth rate was $12{\mu}m/h $ at the optimum conditions. Product film was characterized by XRD, FE-SEM and EDX.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.487-492
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• 2011

The effect of the application of lanthanum strontrium manganite and yttria-stabilized zirconia (LSM-YSZ) nano-composite fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) as a cathode of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is studied. A gradient-structure thin-film cathode composed of 1 micron-thick LSM-YSZ deposited at an ambient pressure ($P_{amb}$) of 200 mTorr; 2 micron-thick LSM-YSZ deposited at a $P_{amb}$ of 300 mTorr; and 2 micron-thick lanthanum strontium cobaltite (LSC) current collecting layer was fabricated on an anode-supported SOFC with an ~8 micron-thick YSZ electrolyte. In comparison with a 1 micron-thick nano-structure single-phase LSM cathode fabricated by PLD, it was obviously effective to increase triple phase boundaries (TPB) over the whole thickness of the cathode layer by employing the composite and increasing the physical thickness of the cathode. Both polarization and ohmic resistances of the cell were significantly reduced and the power output of the cell was improved by a factor of 1.6.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2010

The feasibility of using the thin film technology in utilizing lanthanum strontium manganite (LSM) for a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) cathode in a low-temperature regime is investigated in this study. Thin film LSM cathodes were fabricated using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on anode-supported SOFCs with yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolytes. Although cells with a 1 ${\mu}m$-thick LSM cathode showed poor low-temperature cell performance compared to that of a cell with a bulk-processed cathode due to the lack of a triple-phase boundary length, the cell with 200 nm-thick gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC) inserted between the LSM and YSZ showed enhanced performance and more stable operation characteristics in a comparison of a cell without a GDC layer. We postulate that the GDC layer likely improved the cathode adhesion, therefore contributing to the improvement of the cell performance instead of serving as an interfacial reaction buffer.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.521-530
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• 1999

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.46-46
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• 1998

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.299-302
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• 2009

Oxygen ionic conductors of YSZ electrolyte in SOFC unit cell are applied to anode and cathode as well as electrolyte to have triple-phase-boundaries(TPB) of electrochemical reaction, and it is required to decrease the sintering temperature of anode-supported electrolyte by the nanoscale of YSZ powder.In this report, nanoscale YSZ powder was synthesized by the chemical co-precipitation method. The particle size, surface area and morphology of the powder were observed by SEM and BET. Thin film electrolyte of under 10㎛ was fabricated by tape casting using the synthesized YSZ powder, and ionic conductivity and gas permiability 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 evauations of the SOFC unit cell, including measurements such as power density and impedance, were performed and analyzed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.295-298
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• 2009

Oxygen ionic conductors of CeScSZ electrolyte in SOFC unit cell are applied to anode and cathode as well as electrolyte to have the triple-phase-boundaries of electrochemical reaction, and it is required to decrease the sintering temperature of anode-supported electrolyte by the nanoscale of CeScSZ electrolyte powder. In this report, nanoscale CeScSZ electrolyte powder was synthesized by chemical synthesis method. 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 using the synthesized CeScSZ electrolyte powder, 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, in which the active layer, measuring $20{\mu}m$, was introduced in the anode layer to provide a more efficient reaction. Electrochemical evaluations of the SOFC unit cell, including measurements such as power density and impedance, were performed and analyzed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.84.1-84.1
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• 2011

Typical solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have limited applications because they operate at high temperature due to low ionic conductivity of electrolyte. Thin film solid oxide fuel cell with yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte is developed to decrease operating temperature. Pt/YSZ/Pt thin film SOFC was fabricated on anodic aluminum oxide (AAO). The crystalline structure of YSZ electrolyte by sputter is heavily depends on the roughness of porous Pt layer, which results in pinholes. To deposit YSZ electrolyte without pinholes and electrical shortage, it is necessary to deposit smoother and denser layer between Pt anode layer and YSZ layer by sputter. Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technique is used to deposit pre-YSZ layer, and it improved electrolyte quality. 300nm thick Bi-layered YSZ electrolyte was successfully deposited without electrical shortage.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.796-801
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• 2008

$LaGaO_3$ thin film was prepared on Ni-Fe metal porous substrate by Pulsed Laser Deposition method. By the thermal reduction, the dense $NiO-{Fe_3}{O_4}$ substrate is changed to a porous Ni-Fe metal substrate. The volumetric shrinkage and porosity of the substrate are controlled by the reduction temperature. It was found that a thermal expansion property of the Ni-Fe porous metal substrate is almost the same with that of $LaGaO_3$ based oxide. $LaGaO_3$ based electrolyte films are prepared by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. The film composition is sensitively affected by the deposition temperature. The obtained film is amorphous state after deposition. After post annealing at 1073K in air, the single phase of $LaGaO_3$ perovskite was obtained. Since the thermal expansion coefficient of the film is almost the same with that of LSGM film, the obtained metal support LSGM film cell shows the high tolerance against a thermal shock and after 6 min startup from room temperature, the cell shows the almost theoretical open circuit potential.