Enhancing Performance of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Via Nickel Nanoparticle Infiltration Method for Anode Fabrication

Hydrogen fuel cells are amongst the most promising source of alternative energy as it has the ability to create the most efficient, cleanest, and sustainable form of electrical energy. As one of the most versatile types of hydrogen fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cell has the ability to convert the chemical energy of fuel into electrical energy at a minimum of 60% efficiency without using precious metals or corrosive acids that are found in other fuel cells. However, traditional solid oxide fuel cell performance can increase by improving its electrode design. Many methods have been studied to address this topic and one of them is introducing small Ni nanoparticles over the porous matrix to increase the number of active sites for electrochemical reactions. For my research, the liquid infiltration method of nickel nanoparticles into a porous yttria-stabilized zirconia matrix was investigated to create a high-performance anode. Solid oxide fuel cells created by the infiltration method can potentially produce a higher power density than the conventional anode. This is due to the increase of triple phase boundary and reactive surfaces by introducing nano-sized nickel particles. The increase of contact area between the nickle particles and the electrolyte support allows for more efficient electron transport that leads to decrease of ohmic resistance within the anode layer. The depth and quantity of infiltrated nickel nanoparticles were observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the performance of infiltrated cells and their results were compared to conventional Ni-YSZ cells. The results generated so far showed a lower power density in infiltrated cells of 90 mW/cm² compared to traditional Ni-YSZ cells of 170 mW/cm². The lower performance of infiltrated cells can be explained by the poor distribution of Ni nanoparticles over the surface of the porous matrix shown by SEM images. As future work, infiltration procedures will be improved by optimizing its process parameters including the Ni precursor concentration and infiltration time.