Active Cathodes for Super-High Power Density Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Through Space Charge Effects Quarterly Report: January-March 2004 (open access)

Active Cathodes for Super-High Power Density Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Through Space Charge Effects Quarterly Report: January-March 2004

This report summarizes the work done during the sixth quarter of the project. Effort was directed in three areas: (1) Further development of the model on the role of connectivity on ionic conductivity of porous bodies, including the role of grain boundaries and space charge region. (2) Calculation of the effect of space charge and morphology of porous bodies on the effective charge transfer resistance of porous composite cathodes. (3) The investigation of the three electrode system for the measurement of cathodic polarization using amperometric sensors.
Date: May 17, 2004
Creator: Virkar, Anil V.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Active Cathodes for Super-High Power Density Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Through Space Charge Effects Quarterly Report: October-December 2003 (open access)

Active Cathodes for Super-High Power Density Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Through Space Charge Effects Quarterly Report: October-December 2003

This report summarizes the work done during the fifth quarter of the project. Effort was directed in two areas: (1) Further development of the model on the role of connectivity on ionic conductivity of porous bodies, including the role of grain boundaries and space charge region. (2) Fabrication of porous samaria-doped ceria (SDC) and investigation of the effect of thermal treatment on its conductivity. The model developed accounts for transport through three regions: (a) Transport through the bulk of the grain, RI, which includes parallel transport through space charge region. (b) Transport through the space charge region adjacent to the neck (grain boundary), RII. (c) Transport through the structural part of the neck (grain boundary), RIII. The work on the model development involves calculation RI, RII, RIII, and the sum of these three terms, which is the total resistance, as a function of the grain radius ranging between 0.5 and 5 microns and as a function of the relative neck size, described in terms of the angle theta, ranging between 5 and 45{sup o}. Three values of resistivity of the space charge region were chosen; space charge resistivity greater than grain resistivity, equal to grain resistivity, and lower than grain …
Date: March 8, 2004
Creator: Virkar, Anil V.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Active Cathodes for Super-High Power Density Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Through Space Charge Effects Quarterly Report: July-September 2003 (open access)

Active Cathodes for Super-High Power Density Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Through Space Charge Effects Quarterly Report: July-September 2003

This report summarizes the work done during the fourth quarter of the project. Effort was directed in two areas, namely, continued further development of the model on the role of connectivity on ionic conductivity of porous bodies, including the role of grain boundaries and space charge, and its relationship to cathode polarization; and fabrication of samaria-doped ceria porous (SDC). The work on the model development involves calculation of the effect of space charge on transport through porous bodies. Three specific cases have been examined: (1) Space charge resistivity greater than the grain resistivity, (2) Space charge resistivity equal to the grain resistivity, and (3) Space charge resistivity lower than the grain resistivity. The model accounts for transport through three regions: the bulk of the grain, the space charge region, and the structural part of the grain boundary. The effect of neck size has been explicitly incorporated. In future work, the effective resistivity will be incorporated into the effective cathode polarization resistance. The results will then be compared with experiments.
Date: December 12, 2003
Creator: Virkar, Anil V.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Active Cathodes for Super-High Power Density Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Through Space Charge Effects Quarterly Report: October 2002 - January 2003 (open access)

Active Cathodes for Super-High Power Density Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Through Space Charge Effects Quarterly Report: October 2002 - January 2003

This report summarizes the work done during the first quarter of the project. Effort was directed in three areas: (1) The determination of the role of ionic conductor morphology, used in composite cathodes, on the ionic conductivity of the ionic conductor. It was shown that if the particles are not well sintered, the necks formed between particles will be very narrow, and the resulting conductivity will be too low (resistivity will be too high). Specifically, a mathematical equation was derived to demonstrate the singular nature of conductivity. (2) Nanosize powders of Sc-doped CeO{sub 2} were prepared by combustion synthesis. The rationale is that the particle size of the composite electrode must be as small as possible to ensure a high ionic conductivity--and resulting in high performance in fuel cells. Di-gluconic acid (DGA) was used as fuel. The process led to the formation of nanosize Sc-doped CeO{sub 2}. The powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). (3) Samples were sintered to form materials containing various levels of porosity, from {approx}3% to {approx}43%. Conductivity was measured over a range of temperatures by four probe DC method. It was observed that in highly porous samples, the conductivity was …
Date: April 14, 2003
Creator: Virkar, Professor Anil V.
System: The UNT Digital Library