The impact of NiO on microstructure and electrical property of solid oxide fuel cell anode

Ni-Ce0.8Sm0.2O1.9 (Ni-SDC) cermet was selected as anode material for reduced temperature (800 ℃) solid oxide fuel cells in this study. The influence of NiO powder fabrication methods for Ni-SDC cermets on the electrode performance was investigated so that the result obtained can be applied to make high-quality anode. Three kinds of NiO powder were synthesized with a fourth kind being available in the market. Four types of anode precursors were fabricated with these NiO powders and Ce0.sSm0.2O1.9 (SDC), and then were reduced to anode wafers for sequencing measurement. The electrical conductivity of the anodes was measured and the effect ofmicrostructure was investigated. It was found that the anode electrical conductivity depends strongly on the NiO powder morphologies, microstructure of the cermet anode and particle sizes, which are decided by NiO powder preparation technique. The highest electrical conductivity is obtained for anode cermets with NiO powder synthesized by NiCO3·2Ni(OH)2.4H2O or Ni(NO3)2.6H2O decomposition technique.