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| Home > Publications database > Optimization of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell materials: Visualization of Processes via In-Situ Electron Microscopy |
| Home > Publications database > Optimization of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell materials: Visualization of Processes via In-Situ Electron Microscopy |
| Talk (non-conference) (Other) | FZJ-2025-00672 |
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2024
Abstract: SOFCs are highly efficient electrochemical energy conversion devices operating at high temperatures, generating electricity. [1] SOFCs have a solid electrolyte sandwiched between two porous electrodes. The anode and the cathode mainly interact with a fuel gas and air respectively. Triple Phase Boundaries or TPBs are the active sites, where the gas, electrode and electrolyte interfaces meet and the electrocatalytic reactions in the SOFCs occur. [2, 3] The overall length of TPB decides the performance of the SOFCs. Nevertheless, with repeated cycles of reduction and oxidation during the cell operation, these TPBs degrade and drastically reduces the overall cell efficiency.[2] Such degradation varies with different materials that are commonly in use as electrode materials such as Ni-YSZ, Ni-GDC, LSCF, SFM etc. Therefore, it becomes imperative to have intensive studies of TPB evolution and reaction mechanisms for different electrode materials for better engineering of electrodes toward optimum cell performance. Thus, to visualize these reactions at and around the electrode materials, we need the help of a microscopy device which enables us to observe chemical, structural, and morphological changes at nanometre scales in real-time and under actual operating conditions. Within the Ph.D. project, the goal is to visualize and understand SOFC/SOEC electrochemical processes using in situ TEM studies along with complementary ex situ microscopy tools to obtain morphological, structural, and chemical information down to the nanometre scales.In present literature, only a few studies on SOFC materials have been conducted through in situ TEM to observe the morphological changes in the materials during the redox mechanisms. All such studies are conducted in environmental TEM [ETEM], where only low gas pressure experiments can be conducted (pressure ~10-20 Pascal), and thus observations may not reflect the real operational outcome. Also, not many studies have much of the studies have focused on Ni-YSZ, to correlate the results of a macroscopic cell along with microscopic data. Also, Ni-YSZ suffers from inherent disadvantages such as nickel agglomeration, sulfur poisoning, redox instability upon long time use. Thus, it also becomes imperative to look at properties of different upcoming and new materials at atomic scales to design better materials for future use in SOFCs/SOECs.
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