The Preparation of Pervoskite Oxide Powders Adopted in ITSOFC via Inductively Coupled Plasma Technique

Abstract

This study is aimed to produce nano-scale and micronscale perovskite oxide powders, such as ionic conductive and mixed conductive powders, to be adopted respectively as solid electrolyte and electrode materials for intermediated temperature solid oxide fuel cells (ITSOFCs). These nano-scale powders will be manufactured via a thermal plasma powder synthesis technique using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) synthesis system. In the application of fabricating the SOFC membrane electrode assembly (MEA), the use of raw powders with nano-scale sizes can dramatically reduce the sintering temperature and hence the cost of MEA fabrication could be decreased; moreover, the resultant nano-structured electrodes tend to provide more triple phase boundaries (TPB) and reaction sites. Consequently, more facile electrode kinetics can be obtained and the cell performance can be enhanced.