Sintering cathodes

Morphology of the sintered cathode layer was observed using SEM and the image is shown in Figure 11.22. As seen, the obtained cathode of approximately 40 xm is... 

Defects in arc-grown nanotubes place limitations on their utility. Since defects appear to arise predominantly due to sintering of adjacent nanotubes in the high temperature of the arc, it seemed sensible to try to reduce the extent of sintering by cooling the cathode better[2]. The most vivid assay for the extent of sintering is the oxidative heat purification treatment of Ebbesen and coworkers[7], in which amorphous carbon and shorter nanoparticles are etched away before nanotubes are substantially shortened. Since, as we proposed, most of the nanoparticle impurities orig-... 

Sintered and sprayed ceramic anodes have been developed for cathodic protection applications. The ceramic anodes are composed of a group of materials classified as ferrites with iron oxide as the principal component. The electrochemical properties of divalent metal oxide ferrites in the composition range 0- lA/O-0-9Fe2O3 where M represents a divalent metal, e.g. Mg, Zn, Mn, Co or Ni, have been examined by Wakabayashi and Akoi" . They found that nickel ferrite exhibited the lowest consumption rate in 3% NaCl (of 1 56 g A y at 500 Am and that an increase in the NiO content to 40mol 7o, i.e. O NiO-O-bFejO, reduced the dissolution rate to 0-4gA y at the expense of an increase in the material resistivity from 0-02 to 0-3 ohm cm. 

Fig. 16. Small-scalo laboratory cell for preparative electrolysis. A, Pt gauze working electrode. B, Pt sheet secondary electrode. C, Reference electrode. D, Luggin capillary on a syringe barrel so that the position of the tip of the Luggin probe relative to the working electrode is readily adjustable. E, Glass sinter to separate anode and cathode compartments. F, Gas inlet to allow stirring with inert gas or the continuous introduction of reactant. G, Three-way tap where a boundary between the reference electrode and the working solutions may be formed.

MEAs used in this study were prepared in the following procedure [5]. The diffusion backing layers for anode and cathode were a Teflon-treated (20 wt. %) carbon paper (Toray 090, E-Tek) of 0.29 mm thickness. A thin diffusion layer was formed on top of the backing layer by spreading Vulcan XC-72 (85 wt. %) with PTFE (15 wt. %) for both anode and cathode. After the diffusion layers were sintered at a temperature of 360 C for 15 min., the catalyst layer was then formed with Pl/Ru (4 mg/cm ) and Nafion (1 mg/cm ) for anode and with Pt (4 mg/cm ) and Nafion (1 mg/cm ) for cathode. The prepared electrodes were placed either side of a pretreated Nafion 115 membrane and the assembly was hot-pressed at 85 kg/cm for 3 min. at 135 C. 

The electrochemical performance of La,.6Sr0 4Coo.2Feo.803 (LSCF6428) composition was characterized by Esquirol et al. [102], At 600°C, the conductivity of a porous LSCF coating with thickness of 10 pm was 52.8 and 29.2 Scm 1 when sintered at 1000 and 850°C, respectively. This conductivity is considerably lower than the conductivity values for dense LSCF (300 to 400 Scm-1)- The electrode polarization resistance of LSCF sintered at 850°C was 7.5, 0.23, and 0.03 ohm cm2 at 502, 650, and 801°C, respectively, lower than the electrode polarization resistance values at the same temperatures for the LSCF cathode sintered at 1000°C. The results show that the electrochemical activity of the LSCF electrode for the 02 reduction at... 

In addition to the chemical interactions described above, microstructural changes in the electrode can lead to performance degradation after long operation time. For example sintering of the porous structure can degrade electrode performance. In the case of LSM cathodes, the sintering ability is found to be related to the strontium dopant level and stoichiometric composition of (La, Sr)xMn03. In addition, LSM with A-site deficient compositions (x < 1) sinters more readily than their B-site deficient counterparts (x > 1) [198, 199],... 

In addition to the use of composite anodes and cathodes, another commonly used approach to increase the total reaction surface area in SOFC electrodes is to manipulate the particle size distribution of the feedstock materials used to produce the electrodes to create a finer structure in the resulting electrode after consolidation. Various powder production and processing methods have been examined to manipulate the feedstock particle size distribution for the fabrication of SOFCs and their effects on fuel cell performance have also been studied. The effects of other process parameters, such as sintering temperature, on the final microstructural size features in the electrodes have also been examined extensively. 

C resulted in the lowest Rp of the three sintering temperatures studied (3.06 Gem2 at 700°C at OCV), with an acceptable tradeoff between particle size and connectivity [67], Figure 6.10 shows micrographs of the cathodes produced at the three firing temperatures and of a test cell [67],... 

FIGURE 6.10 Microstructures of Sm2 ISr[Ni04 cathodes sintered at three firing temperatures (a) 900°C, (b) 1000°C, and (c) 1100°C, and (d) of a test cell [67]. Reprinted from [67] with permission from Elsevier. 

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