Mechanisms of catalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons in a solid-electrolyte fuel cell

Technical Report · Sat Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:6160513

Nguyen, B C; Mason, D M

Results presented in this paper are part of an ongoing investigation of the electrocatalytic mechanisms involved in the anodic oxidation of hydrocarbons and the cathodic reduction of O2 in a fuel cell employing Sc2O3- or Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2. The general status of the electrochemical studies is reviewed. The particular focus of this paper is on experiments performed to test the assumption that the solid electrolyte plays an important role in electrocatalysis compared to the porous metallic electrode. It has been observed that great enhancement in reaction-rates and current drawn at a given overpotential occurs when the electrolyte is blackened by electrolysis, forming a suboxide of zirconia, ZrO2-x. Simple potentiometric measurements with H2 as the fuel and air as oxidant have been made on both the unblackened and blackened ZrO2-Sc2O3 system.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6160513
• Report Number(s): N-84-21366
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
300505* -- Fuel Cells-- Electrochemistry
Mass Transfer & Thermodynamics
CATALYSTS
CERAMICS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMISTRY
CHROMATOGRAPHY
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTROCATALYSTS
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ELECTROCHEMISTRY
ELECTROLYTES
ELEMENTS
FUEL CELLS
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
HYDROCARBONS
KINETICS
METALS
MICROSTRUCTURE
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OVERVOLTAGE
OXIDATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
REACTION KINETICS
SCANDIUM
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLID ELECTROLYTES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
ZIRCONIUM COMPOUNDS
ZIRCONIUM OXIDES