Quantitative three-dimensional microstructure of a solid oxide fuel cell cathode

James R. Wilson; Anh T. Duong; Marcio Gameiro; Hsun Yi Chen; Katsuyo Thornton; Daniel R. Mumm; Scott A. Barnett

doi:10.1016/j.elecom.2009.03.010

Quantitative three-dimensional microstructure of a solid oxide fuel cell cathode

James R. Wilson^*, Anh T. Duong, Marcio Gameiro, Hsun Yi Chen, Katsuyo Thornton, Daniel R. Mumm, Scott A. Barnett

^*Corresponding author for this work

Materials Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

152 Scopus citations

Abstract

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are being actively developed world wide for clean and efficient electrical generation from fuels such as natural gas, hydrogen, coal, and gasoline. The cathode in state of the art SOFCs is typically a porous composite of electronically-conducting La_1-xSr_xMnO₃ (LSM) and ionically-conducting Y₂O₃-stabilized ZrO₂ (YSZ) that facilitates the critical oxygen reduction reaction. Here we describe the three-dimensional characterization and quantification of key structural parameters from an LSM-YSZ cathode, using imaging and volume reconstruction based on focused ion beam - scanning electron microscopy. LSM-YSZ-pore three-phase boundaries (TPBs) were identified. Approximately 1/3 of the TPBs were found to be electrochemically inactive, as they were on isolated LSM particles, yielding an active TPB density of 4.9 μm^-2. Cathode electrochemical modeling, which included a measured YSZ tortuosity of 3.4, yielded an effective TPB resistance of ≈2.5 × 10⁵ Ω cm at 800 °C.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1052-1056
Number of pages	5
Journal	Electrochemistry Communications
Volume	11
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elecom.2009.03.010
State	Published - May 2009

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Foundation Ceramics program through Grants DMR-0542740 (Northwestern Univ., DMR-0542619 (Univ. of Michigan)) and 0645812 (UC-Irvine). In addition, this work was partially supported by the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship No. P08016 and by the JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 2008016, Ministry of Education, Science, Technology, Culture and Sports, Japan. The authors also acknowledge the use of the facilities within the Carl Zeiss Center of Excellence at the University of California, Irvine as well as Sherri Rukes for her work involving the cell processing.

Keywords

Cathodes
FIB-SEM
LSM-YSZ
Microstructure
Nanotomography
SOFC

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electrochemistry

Access to Document

10.1016/j.elecom.2009.03.010

Cite this

@article{3061214892554b629ddd1ce7bbfc3b58,

title = "Quantitative three-dimensional microstructure of a solid oxide fuel cell cathode",

abstract = "Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are being actively developed world wide for clean and efficient electrical generation from fuels such as natural gas, hydrogen, coal, and gasoline. The cathode in state of the art SOFCs is typically a porous composite of electronically-conducting La1-xSrxMnO3 (LSM) and ionically-conducting Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) that facilitates the critical oxygen reduction reaction. Here we describe the three-dimensional characterization and quantification of key structural parameters from an LSM-YSZ cathode, using imaging and volume reconstruction based on focused ion beam - scanning electron microscopy. LSM-YSZ-pore three-phase boundaries (TPBs) were identified. Approximately 1/3 of the TPBs were found to be electrochemically inactive, as they were on isolated LSM particles, yielding an active TPB density of 4.9 μm-2. Cathode electrochemical modeling, which included a measured YSZ tortuosity of 3.4, yielded an effective TPB resistance of ≈2.5 × 105 Ω cm at 800 °C.",

keywords = "Cathodes, FIB-SEM, LSM-YSZ, Microstructure, Nanotomography, SOFC",

author = "Wilson, {James R.} and Duong, {Anh T.} and Marcio Gameiro and Chen, {Hsun Yi} and Katsuyo Thornton and Mumm, {Daniel R.} and Barnett, {Scott A.}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Foundation Ceramics program through Grants DMR-0542740 (Northwestern Univ., DMR-0542619 (Univ. of Michigan)) and 0645812 (UC-Irvine). In addition, this work was partially supported by the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship No. P08016 and by the JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 2008016, Ministry of Education, Science, Technology, Culture and Sports, Japan. The authors also acknowledge the use of the facilities within the Carl Zeiss Center of Excellence at the University of California, Irvine as well as Sherri Rukes for her work involving the cell processing.",

year = "2009",

month = may,

doi = "10.1016/j.elecom.2009.03.010",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "11",

pages = "1052--1056",

journal = "Electrochemistry Communications",

issn = "1388-2481",

publisher = "Elsevier Inc.",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Quantitative three-dimensional microstructure of a solid oxide fuel cell cathode

AU - Wilson, James R.

AU - Duong, Anh T.

AU - Gameiro, Marcio

AU - Chen, Hsun Yi

AU - Thornton, Katsuyo

AU - Mumm, Daniel R.

AU - Barnett, Scott A.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Foundation Ceramics program through Grants DMR-0542740 (Northwestern Univ., DMR-0542619 (Univ. of Michigan)) and 0645812 (UC-Irvine). In addition, this work was partially supported by the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship No. P08016 and by the JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 2008016, Ministry of Education, Science, Technology, Culture and Sports, Japan. The authors also acknowledge the use of the facilities within the Carl Zeiss Center of Excellence at the University of California, Irvine as well as Sherri Rukes for her work involving the cell processing.

PY - 2009/5

Y1 - 2009/5

N2 - Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are being actively developed world wide for clean and efficient electrical generation from fuels such as natural gas, hydrogen, coal, and gasoline. The cathode in state of the art SOFCs is typically a porous composite of electronically-conducting La1-xSrxMnO3 (LSM) and ionically-conducting Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) that facilitates the critical oxygen reduction reaction. Here we describe the three-dimensional characterization and quantification of key structural parameters from an LSM-YSZ cathode, using imaging and volume reconstruction based on focused ion beam - scanning electron microscopy. LSM-YSZ-pore three-phase boundaries (TPBs) were identified. Approximately 1/3 of the TPBs were found to be electrochemically inactive, as they were on isolated LSM particles, yielding an active TPB density of 4.9 μm-2. Cathode electrochemical modeling, which included a measured YSZ tortuosity of 3.4, yielded an effective TPB resistance of ≈2.5 × 105 Ω cm at 800 °C.

AB - Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are being actively developed world wide for clean and efficient electrical generation from fuels such as natural gas, hydrogen, coal, and gasoline. The cathode in state of the art SOFCs is typically a porous composite of electronically-conducting La1-xSrxMnO3 (LSM) and ionically-conducting Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) that facilitates the critical oxygen reduction reaction. Here we describe the three-dimensional characterization and quantification of key structural parameters from an LSM-YSZ cathode, using imaging and volume reconstruction based on focused ion beam - scanning electron microscopy. LSM-YSZ-pore three-phase boundaries (TPBs) were identified. Approximately 1/3 of the TPBs were found to be electrochemically inactive, as they were on isolated LSM particles, yielding an active TPB density of 4.9 μm-2. Cathode electrochemical modeling, which included a measured YSZ tortuosity of 3.4, yielded an effective TPB resistance of ≈2.5 × 105 Ω cm at 800 °C.

KW - Cathodes

KW - FIB-SEM

KW - LSM-YSZ

KW - Microstructure

KW - Nanotomography

KW - SOFC

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=65049084287&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=65049084287&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.elecom.2009.03.010

DO - 10.1016/j.elecom.2009.03.010

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:65049084287

SN - 1388-2481

VL - 11

SP - 1052

EP - 1056

JO - Electrochemistry Communications

JF - Electrochemistry Communications

IS - 5

ER -

Quantitative three-dimensional microstructure of a solid oxide fuel cell cathode

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this