On the role of the zirconia/ceria interface in the degradation of solid oxide electrolysis cells
Abstract
Gd-doped Ceria (GDC) barrier layers are widely used in solid oxide electrolysis cells to prevent reactions between the Y-stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte and oxygen electrode. In some cases, electrolysis operation causes fracture near the GDC/YSZ interface. Here, we explain this effect using a numerical calculation, showing that a peak oxygen pressure is observed near the GDC/YSZ interface during electrolysis operation. Moreover, GDC/YSZ interdiffusion and possible zirconate phase formation occurring during electrode firing yield a low oxygen ion conductivity region that introduces a much higher peak oxygen partial pressure at the interdiffusion layer/YSZ interface, thereby exacerbating degradation. The results indicate that the peak pressure can be reduced and, thereby, damage can be mitigated by altering processing in order to minimize interdiffusion, decreasing the GDC layer thickness, and reducing oxygen electrode polarization resistance or altering electrolyte transport properties, e.g., changing the Gd doping level of GDC to increase the oxygen vacancy diffusivity.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1];
- Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (United States). Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1799424
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1665916
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0008079
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 117; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- Physics
Citation Formats
Zhang, Qian, Park, Beom-Kyeong, Barnett, Scott, and Voorhees, Peter. On the role of the zirconia/ceria interface in the degradation of solid oxide electrolysis cells. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1063/5.0016478.
Zhang, Qian, Park, Beom-Kyeong, Barnett, Scott, & Voorhees, Peter. On the role of the zirconia/ceria interface in the degradation of solid oxide electrolysis cells. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0016478
Zhang, Qian, Park, Beom-Kyeong, Barnett, Scott, and Voorhees, Peter. Mon .
"On the role of the zirconia/ceria interface in the degradation of solid oxide electrolysis cells". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0016478. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1799424.
@article{osti_1799424,
title = {On the role of the zirconia/ceria interface in the degradation of solid oxide electrolysis cells},
author = {Zhang, Qian and Park, Beom-Kyeong and Barnett, Scott and Voorhees, Peter},
abstractNote = {Gd-doped Ceria (GDC) barrier layers are widely used in solid oxide electrolysis cells to prevent reactions between the Y-stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte and oxygen electrode. In some cases, electrolysis operation causes fracture near the GDC/YSZ interface. Here, we explain this effect using a numerical calculation, showing that a peak oxygen pressure is observed near the GDC/YSZ interface during electrolysis operation. Moreover, GDC/YSZ interdiffusion and possible zirconate phase formation occurring during electrode firing yield a low oxygen ion conductivity region that introduces a much higher peak oxygen partial pressure at the interdiffusion layer/YSZ interface, thereby exacerbating degradation. The results indicate that the peak pressure can be reduced and, thereby, damage can be mitigated by altering processing in order to minimize interdiffusion, decreasing the GDC layer thickness, and reducing oxygen electrode polarization resistance or altering electrolyte transport properties, e.g., changing the Gd doping level of GDC to increase the oxygen vacancy diffusivity.},
doi = {10.1063/5.0016478},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 12,
volume = 117,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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