• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.95-105
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• 1995

Ceria(CeO2) stabilized zirconia(CeSZ) sol was synthesized with zirconium n-butoxide Zr(OC4H9)4 and cerium nitrate hexahydrate Ce(NO3)3.6H2O as precursors and ethylacetoacetate(EAcAc) as a chelating agent under atmosphere. CeSZ films were deposited on AISI 304 stainless steel using the prepared polymeric sol by dipcoating and the coating characteristics were investigated by XRD, ellipsometry, scratch test and SEM. The CeSZ film began to crystallize from amorphous to tetragonal phase at 40$0^{\circ}C$ and it was not converted into monoclinic phase up to 100$0^{\circ}C$ by the addition of 16mol% CeO2 as a stabilizer which could suppress phase transformation of zirconia. The CeSZ films were prepared by varying the EAcAc contents and the cncentration of CeSZ sol and measured the thickness and refractive index. From these results, it was found that the EAcAc contents and concentration of CeSZ coating sol evidently affect the densification of CeSZ film. The CeSZ film coated with 0.4M CeSZ sol and heat-treated at $600^{\circ}C$ for 10min had thickness of 50nm and 17% porosity. The CeSZ film on 304 stainless steel effectively acted as a protective layer against oxidation up to 80$0^{\circ}C$ and had superior corrosion resistance in 25% H2SO4 solution for 4.5 hrs.

• 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.47 no.1
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• pp.26-38
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• 2010

Degradation in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell performance can be ascribed to the following fundamental processes from the materials chemical point of view; that is, diffusion in solids and reaction with gaseous impurities. For SOFC materials, diffusion in solids is usually slow in operation temperatures $800\sim1000^{\circ}C$. Even at $800^{\circ}C$, however, a few processes are rapid enough to lead to some degradations; namely, Sr diffusion in doped ceria, cation diffusion in cathode materials, diffusion related with metal corrosion, and sintering of nickel anodes. For gaseous impurities, chromium containing vapors are important to know how the chemical stability of cathode materials is related with degradation of performance. For LSM as the most stable cathode among the perovskite-type cathodes, electrochemical reduction reaction of $CrO_3$(g) at the electrochemically active sites is crucial, whereas the rest of the cathodes have the $SrCrO_4$ formation at the point where cathodes meet with the gases, leading to rather complicated processes to the degradations, depending on the amount and distribution of reacted Cr component. These features can be easily generalized to other impurities in air or to the reaction of nickel anodes with gaseous impurities in anode atmosphere.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.132-139
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• 2020

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are among one of the promising technologies for efficient and clean energy. SOFCs offer several advantages over other types of fuel cells under relatively high temperatures (600℃ to 800℃). However, the thermal behavior of SOFC stacks at high operating temperatures is a serious issue in SOFC development because it can be associated with detrimental thermal stresses on the life span of the stacks. The thermal behavior of SOFC stacks can be influenced by operating or material properties. Therefore, this work aims to investigate the effects of the thermal conductivity of each component (anode, cathode, and electrolyte) on the thermal behavior of samarium-doped ceria-based SOFCs at intermediate temperatures. Computational fluid dynamics is used to simulate SOFC operation at 600℃. The temperature distributions and gradients of a single cell at 0.7 V under different thermal conductivity values are analyzed and discussed to determine their relationship. Simulations reveal that the influence of thermal conductivity is more remarkable for the anode and electrolyte than for the cathode. Increasing the thermal conductivity of the anode by 50% results in a 23% drop in the maximum thermal gradients. The results for the electrolyte are subtle, with a ~67% reduction in thermal conductivity that only results in an 8% reduction in the maximum temperature gradient. The effect of thermal conductivity on temperature gradient is important because it can be used to predict thermal stress generation.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2010

Composites of LSCF($La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Co_{0.2}Fe_{0.8}O_{3-\delta}$) and CGO (gadolinium doped ceria)-based ceramics are logical candidate cathode materials with CGO electrolytes. LSCF with perovskite structure was synthesized and investigated by Solid State Reaction (SSR) method used as cathode materials for SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell). The optimized temperature was $1100^{\circ}C$ to synthesize $La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Co_{0.2}Fe_{0.8}O_{3-\delta}$ with rhombohedral structure. The polarization resistance of the LSCF/CGO (50:50 wt.%) was smaller than that of other composite cathodes. The analysis of the EIS data of LSCF/CGO suggests that the diffusion and adsorption-desorption of oxygen can be the key process in the cathodic reaction.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.297-303
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• 1998

The effect of aliovalent dopants, $ Nb_2O_5$ and MnO, on the phase stability of 12 mol% ceria partially-stabilized zirconia (Ce-TZP) polycrystals was studied. Both dopants (MnO and $ Nb_2O_5$) significantly increased the stability of the tetragonal zirconia phase (Mb temperature lower than liquid nitrogen temperature). The enhancement of the stability of the tetragonal phase in Ce-TZP doped with 1 mol% of Mno(Ce-TZP/MnO) andCe-TZP doped with 1 mol% of $ Nb_2O_5$(Ce-TZP/$ Nb_2O_5$) were explained by the significant reduction of the driving force, -${\Delta}$Gchem, for the tetragonal-to-mono-clinic phase transformation caused by the addition of MnO and $ Nb_2O_5$. The enhanced stability of the tetragonal phase in the Ce-TZP and Al2O3 composite (Ce-TZP/$Al_2O_3$) is believed to be caused by smaller grain size, moderate reduction in the chemical driving force and increase in the strain energy barrier to the transformation. Mechanical properties of the Ce-TZP and the Ce-TZP/$Al_2O_3$ with (i) the same grain size and (ii) the same Mb temperature were examined by measuring stress-strain behavior in 3 point bending. The Ce-TZP/$Al_2O_3$ composite doped with 1.3w% MnO (Ce-TZP/$Al_2O_3$/MnO), which had the same grain size as the Ce-TZP and De-TZP/$Al_2O_3$ showed more transformation plasticity than either the Ce-TZP or the Ce-TZP/$Al_2O_3$ composite. The Ce-TZP wihch had the same Mb temperature as that of the Ce-TZP/$Al_2O_3$/MnO did not show any transformation plasticity.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.652-658
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• 1997

The phase stability in the interface of Sr-doped LaMnO3(LSM)/Gd-doped CeO2(CGO) was examined in this study in order to check the feasibility of using LSM as the cathode material in a low-temperature SOFC(solid oxide fuel cell) using CGO as the electrolyte. For the purpose, CGO powders of Ce0.82Gd0.18O0.91 and two LSM powders having different compositions, La0.9Sr0.1MnO3(LSM10) and La0.5Sr0.5MnO3(LSM50), were synthesized using Pechini method. Then, specimens having the LSM/CGO interface were prepared, heat-treated at 130$0^{\circ}C$ for up to 3 days, and analyzed by XRD and STEM/EDX. Face-centered cubic CGO powders of less than 10 nm size were obtained by calcination of polymeric precursor formed in the process at 45$0^{\circ}C$. Higher calcination temperature of $700^{\circ}C$ was necessary for monoclinic LSM10 and cubic LSM50 powders. LSM powders were coarser than CGO and observed to be in the range of 50~100 nm. No trace of LSM-CGO interaction product was found in the XRD pattern. Also it was known from the concentration profile in the vicinity of the interface that interdiffusion was occurred over only a small penetration depth of ~100 nm order.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.58.2-58.2
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• 2012

Heavy hydrocarbon reforming is a core technology for "Dirty energy smart". Heavy hydrocarbons are components of fossil fuels, biomass, coke oven gas and etc. Heavy hydrocarbon reforming converts the fuels into $H_2$-rich syngas. And then $H_2$-rich syngas is used for the production of electricity, synthetic fuels and petrochemicals. Energy can be used efficiently and obtained from various sources by using $H_2$-rich syngas from heavy hydrocarbon reforming. Especially, the key point of "Dirty energy smart" is using "dirty fuel" which is wasted in an inefficient way. New energy conversion laboratory of KAIST has been researched diesel reforming for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) as a part of "Dirty energy smart". Diesel is heavy hydrocarbon fuels which has higher carbon number than natural gas, kerosene and gasoline. Diesel reforming has difficulties due to the evaporation of fuels and coke formation. Nevertheless, diesel reforming technology is directly applied to "Dirty fuel" because diesel has the similar chemical properties with "Dirty fuel". On the other hand, SOFC has advantages on high efficiency and wasted heat recovery. Nippon oil Co. of Japan recently commercializes 700We class SOFC system using city gas. Considering the market situation, the development of diesel reformer has a great ripple effect. SOFC system can be applied to auxiliary power unit and distributed power generation. In addition, "Dirty energy smart" can be realized by applying diesel reforming technology to "Dirty fuel". As well as material developments, multidirectional approaches are required to reform heavy hydrocarbon fuels and use $H_2$-rich gas in SOFC. Gd doped ceria (CGO, $Ce_{1-x}Gd_xO_{2-y}$) has been researched for not only electrolyte materials but also catalysts supports. In addition, catalysts infiltrated electrode over porous $La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}Ga_{0.8}Mg_{0.2}O_3-{\delta}$ and catalyst deposition at three phase boundary are being investigated to improve the performance of SOFC. On the other hand, nozzle for diesel atomization and post-reforming for light-hydrocarbons removal are examples of solving material problems in multidirectional approaches. Likewise, multidirectional approaches are necessary to realize "Dirty energy smart" like reforming "Dirty fuel" for SOFC.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.118-122
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• 2018

Ceria ($CeO_2$) is a rare earth oxide, which has been widely investigated to improve the property. It is important to increase the surface area of $CeO_2$, because high surface area of $CeO_2$ can improve the catalytic ability. $CeO_2$ nanoparticles were synthesized by a solvothermal process. A discussion on the influence of solvent ratio and precursors on $CeO_2$ nanoparticles was performed. The size and degree of the agglomeration of the synthesized $CeO_2$ could be tuned by controlling those parameters. The average size and distribution of prepared $CeO_2$ powders was in the range of 3 to 13 nm and narrow, respectively. The XRD pattern showed that the synthesized $CeO_2$ powders were crystalline with cubic phase of $CeO_2$. The average particle size was calculated by Scherrer equation and FE-TEM images. The morphology of the synthesized $CeO_2$ particle was objected using FE-TEM and FE-SEM. Specific surface area of the synthesized $CeO_2$ was determined using BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) equation.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.391-402
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• 1999

Characteristics of composite electrolytes which were prepared by coating a thin film of YSZ (yttria sta-bilized zirconia : (ZrO2)0.92 (Y2O3)0.08) on YDC (yttria doped ceria : Ce0.8Y0.2O1.9) with mixed conductivity have been investigated in order to develop the low-temperature solid oxide fuel cell. The thickness (t) of spin-coated YSZ thin films after the heat-treatment at 600$^{\circ}C$ was increased proportionally to the sol con-centrations (C) while the decrease in its thickness with the spin rate ($\omega$) could be expressed in the e-quation of ln t=9.49-0.53 ln $\omega$(0.99mol//s sol conc.) When the sol concentration and the spin rate being less than 0.99 mol/l and higher than 1000 rpm respectively reliable YSZ/YDC composite electrolytes could be obtained by multi-coating although several micro-cracks were observed in singly coated YSZ film surfaces. The dense YSZ film with a 1$\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness was prepared by coating of 0.99 mol/l YSZ sol five-times at 2000 rpm followed by heat-treatment at 1400$^{\circ}C$ for 2h, The adhesion between YSZ film and YDC substrate was found to be very good. The open circuit voltages of H2/O2 single cell with YSZ/YDC composite electrolytes were 0.79∼0.82 V at 800$^{\circ}C$ and 0.75∼0.77V at 900$^{\circ}C$ The open circuit voltage was inversely proportioned to the thickness ratio of YSZ thin film (1$\mu\textrm{m}$) to YDC substrate(0.28-2.22 mm)