The Effect of Electrode Morphology on Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Performance

Abstract

Three different electrode morphologies are generated from three different starting powders, spheres representing non-aggregated powders, agglomerates of spheres and high aspect ratio cylinders modelling splats formed in plasma sprays. Electrodes from each morphology are analysed using finite volumes to predict the effective transport coefficients, the triple phase boundary length and the performance of the electrode. The same structures are also analysed using morphological characterization which can be much more efficient. It was found that high aspect ratio base particles are favourable, and that constrictivity correlates best with the finite volume transport calculations.

Stochastic 3D modeling of complex three-phase microstructures in SOFC-electrodes with completely connected phases

“…In these models the microstructures are iteratively generated by the aid of different sphere-packing algorithms. A generalization to ellipsoidal and cylindrical particles was recently done in [2] and [26]. However, the existing microstructure models are not able to reproduce more complex shapes [27], and the connectivity properties observed in experimental image data [15].…”

Influence of Microstructure on Electrochemical Performance of Plasma Sprayed Ni‐YSZ Anodes for SOFCs

“…Numerically generated structures based on spherical particles [19,20] are generally considered representative of structures fabricated using wet ceramic processes. However, there has been limited modeling using simplified geometry to represent the splat-like structures obtained using plasma spray methods [21].…”