TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of reversing-current operation on the structure and electrochemical performance evolution of Ni-YSZ fuel electrodes
AU - Liu, Qinyuan
AU - Wang, Hongqian
AU - Kennouche, David
AU - Riscoe, Casey
AU - Butts, Danielle
AU - Barnett, Scott A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the US National Science Foundation (grant # DMR-1506925), and also by the US Department of Energy Grant # DE-SC0016965, which supported initial development of the Ni-YSZ symmetric cells. The authors also acknowledge the assistance of the Electron Probe Instrumentation Center (EPIC) at the NUANCE Center-Northwestern University, which has received support from the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1121262) at the Materials Research Center; the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN); and the State of Illinois, through the IIN. The authors wish to thank Dr. Tenglong Zhu for helpful ideas about the cell fabrication process.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Electrochemical Society.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - In reversible operation of solid oxide cells for energy storage applications, the current direction switches periodically as the cell alternates between fuel cell and electrolysis modes. Here we report the effect of this alternating current operation on Ni-YSZ fuel electrodes in 1000 h life tests at different current densities. Ni-YSZ/YSZ/Ni-YSZ symmetric cells were used because they allow relatively straightforward interpretation of electrochemical results. At constant cell current density values ≤ 0.4 A/cm2, the cell voltage and total resistance values were reasonably stable, with a slight reduction in RP. At current densities ≥ 0.6 A/cm2, voltage and total cell resistances were still approximately constant, but there was a steady increase in the RΩ that was almost offset by a decrease in RP. The higher current densities resulted in damage to the electrode/electrolyte interface structure including delamination, explaining the RΩ increase. Increasing the current density also produced more Ni and YSZ nanoparticles in the electrode, yielding the decrease of RP.
AB - In reversible operation of solid oxide cells for energy storage applications, the current direction switches periodically as the cell alternates between fuel cell and electrolysis modes. Here we report the effect of this alternating current operation on Ni-YSZ fuel electrodes in 1000 h life tests at different current densities. Ni-YSZ/YSZ/Ni-YSZ symmetric cells were used because they allow relatively straightforward interpretation of electrochemical results. At constant cell current density values ≤ 0.4 A/cm2, the cell voltage and total resistance values were reasonably stable, with a slight reduction in RP. At current densities ≥ 0.6 A/cm2, voltage and total cell resistances were still approximately constant, but there was a steady increase in the RΩ that was almost offset by a decrease in RP. The higher current densities resulted in damage to the electrode/electrolyte interface structure including delamination, explaining the RΩ increase. Increasing the current density also produced more Ni and YSZ nanoparticles in the electrode, yielding the decrease of RP.
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U2 - 10.1149/2.1231810jes
DO - 10.1149/2.1231810jes
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85053763768
SN - 0013-4651
VL - 165
SP - F870-F875
JO - Journal of the Electrochemical Society
JF - Journal of the Electrochemical Society
IS - 10
ER -
