Quantifying intermediate-frequency heterogeneities of SOFC electrodes using X-ray computed tomography

Epting, William K.; Mansley, Zachary; Menasche, David B.; Kenesei, Peter; Suter, Robert M.; Gerdes, Kirk; Litster, Shawn; Salvador, Paul A.

doi:10.1111/jace.14775

Title: Quantifying intermediate-frequency heterogeneities of SOFC electrodes using X-ray computed tomography

Journal Article · Fri Mar 03 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Journal of the American Ceramic Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.14775· OSTI ID:1392614

Epting, William K. ^[1]; Mansley, Zachary ^[1]; Menasche, David B. ^[1]; Kenesei, Peter ^[2]; Suter, Robert M. ^[1]; Gerdes, Kirk ^[3]; Litster, Shawn ^[1];

^[1]

Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
National Energy Technology Lab., Morgantown, WV (United States)

The electrodes in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) consist of three phases interconnected in three dimensions. The volume needed to describe quantitatively such microstructures depends on several lengths scales, which are functions of materials properties and fabrication methods. This work focuses on quantifying the volume needed to represent “intermediate frequency” heterogeneities in electrodes of a commercial SOFC using X-ray computed tomography (CT) over two different length scales. Electrode volumes of 150 x 150 x 9 μm³ were extracted from a synchrotron-based micro-CT data set, with 13 μm³ voxels. 13.6 x 19.8 x 19.4 μm³ of the cathode and 26.3 x 24.8 x 15.7 μm³ of the anode were extracted from laboratory nano-CT data sets, both with 65³ nm³ voxels. After comparing the variation across sub-regions for the greyscale values from the micro-CT, and for the phase fractions and triple phase boundary densities from the nano-CT, it was found that the sub-region length scales needed to yield statistically similar average values were an order of magnitude larger than those expected to capture the “high frequency” heterogeneity related to the discrete nature of the three phases in electrodes. In conclusion, the challenge of quantifying such electrodes using available experimental methods is discussed.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1392614

Journal Information:: Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol. 100, Issue 5; ISSN 0002-7820

Publisher:: American Ceramic SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 21 works

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