Advanced Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage 2022: Energy Conversion with SOCs
Sponsored by: TMS Functional Materials Division, TMS: Energy Conversion and Storage Committee
Program Organizers: Jung Choi, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Soumendra Basu, Boston University; Paul Ohodnicki, University Of Pittsburgh; Partha Mukherjee, Purdue University; Surojit Gupta, University of North Dakota; Amit Pandey, Lockheed Martin Space; Kyle Brinkman, Clemson University

Monday 2:00 PM
February 28, 2022
Room: 212B
Location: Anaheim Convention Center

Session Chair: Soumendra Basu, Boston University; Xiao-Dong Zhou, University of Louisiana at Lafayette


2:00 PM  Invited
High-performance Solid Oxide Cells for Cost Effective Hydrogen Production: Xiao-Dong Zhou1; Yudong Wang1; Yanhua Sun1; Nengneng Xu1; Gordon Xia1; 1University of Louisiana at Lafayette
    In this talk, I will describe the fabrication of high performance solid oxide cells with a YSZ based electrolyte. The porosity, electrode thickness, electrolyte thickness, and electrode composition are optimized to achieve high performance for hydrogen production. Theoretical analysis and modeling will be described to calculate and model the electrode local environment during operation. The electronic conduction of the interlayer will be incorporated in the model to illustrate its role on the electrolysis performance and performance stability.

2:25 PM  Invited
Microstructural Stability of Reversible Solid Oxide Electrochemical Cells Subjected to Mode Switching: Hector Grande1; Jillian Rix1; Michelle Sugimoto1; John-In Lee1; Ayesha Akter1; Srikanth Gopalan1; Uday Pal1; Soumendra Basu1; 1Boston University
    Reversible Solid Oxide Electrochemical Cells (RSOEC) with nickelate-based oxygen electrodes and Ni/YSZ fuel electrodes have been subjected to periodic switching between SOFC and SOEC operational modes. Microstructural changes such as interfacial reactions, delamination, grain coarsening, and Ni migration have been studied by SEM, TEM, XRD and FIB/SEM-based 3-D reconstruction. The extent of such changes will be related to the operating conditions such as operating temperature, current density, fuel and oxidant compositions, and mode switching frequency and duration. These microstructural changes will also be correlated to changes in the electrochemical performance of these cells.

2:50 PM  
Quantifying Triple Phase Boundary Density in Nanocatalyst-infiltrated SOFC Anodes Using 3-D Reconstruction and Scanning Electron Microscopy: Jillian Mulligan1; Hector Grande1; Uday Pal1; Srikanth Gopalan1; Soumendra Basu1; 1Boston University
    Detailed microstructural characterization is critical to understanding the catalytic processes and degradation mechanisms of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) anodes. However, the complexity of many SOFC anode microstructures, especially those infiltrated with nanoscale electrocatalysts such as Ni or gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC), make quantitative analyses of important properties such as triple phase boundary (TPB) density difficult. In this work, focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy (FIB/SEM) is used in combination with cross-sectional SEM and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to establish a three-dimensional characterization of a Ni-YSZ anode infiltrated with Ni nanoparticles. This analysis contextualizes electrochemical performance with microstructural properties such as TPB density, phase percolation, and pore tortuosity.