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Effect of Deposition Temperature on the Microstructure and Performance of Vacuum Cold Sprayed Nano-Structured LSCF Cathodes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Monday, 24 July 2017
Grand Ballroom East (The Diplomat Beach Resort)
S. L. Zhang, Y. B. Shang (Xi'an Jiaotong University), C. X. Li (Xi'an Jiaotong university), and C. J. Li (Xi'an Jiaotong University)
Here, we investigate the feasibility of using vacuum cold spray process as a novel method for the cost effective fabrication of a nano-structured La0.4Sr0.6Co0.2Fe0.8O3 (LSCF) as a high-performance cathode for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs). Nano sized LSCF particles were used as feedstock. The effects of deposition temperature and particle size on the phase composition, microstructure, and electrochemical performance of the resulting cathodes were studied. The results indicate that 10~20 μm nano-structured porous LSCF cathodes can be successfully prepared by vacuum cold spray process. However, the deposition temperature shows significant influence on the microstructure. When the cathode was deposited at room temperature, there were many unbonded interfaces between the cathode and electrolyte. With the increase of deposition temperature, the interface bonding was improved. At a deposition temperature of 300 °C, it can be found that the cathode and electrolyte were bonded well. Besides, the results indicate that the cathode polarization resistance decreased significantly with the decrease of spray particle size. When particle size decreased from 150 nm to 50 nm, the cathode polarization resistance decreased from 11 Ωcm2 to 1.5 Ωcm 2 at 450 °C. Our results suggest that vacuum cold spray has potential to be a low-cost and flexible process suitable for the fabrication of nano-structured cathodes for LT-SOFCs.