Electrochemical Performance of a Ni and YSZ Composite Synthesised by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis as an Anode for SOFCs

Abstract The electrochemical performance of an anode material for asolid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) depends highly on microstruc-ture in addition to composition. In this study, a NiO–yttria-stabilised zirconia (NiO–YSZ) composite with a highly dis-persed microstructure and large pore volume/surface areahas been synthesised by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP)and its electrochemical characteristics has been investigated.For comparison, the electrochemical performance of a con-ventional NiO–YSZ is also evaluated. The power density ofthe zirconia electrolyte-supported SOFC with the synthe-sised anode is ∼392 mW cm –2 at 900 °C and that of the SOFCwith the conventional NiO–YSZ anode is ∼315 mW cm –2 .The improvement is ∼24%. This result demonstrates that thesynthesised NiO–YSZ is a potential alternative anode mate-rial for SOFCs fabricated with a zirconia solid electrolyte. Keywords: Anode, Nanocomposite, Ni-YSZ, Power Density,Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis654 © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim FUEL CELLS 11, 2011, No. 5, 654–660