Investigation of AISI 441 Ferritic Stainless Steel and Development of Spinel Coatings for SOFC Interconnect Applications

Abstract

As part of an effort to develop cost-effective ferritic stainless steel-based interconnects for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks, both bare and spinel coated AISI 441 were studied in terms of metallurgical characteristics, oxidation behavior, and electrical performance. The conventional melt metallurgy used for the bulk alloy fabrication leads to significant processing cost reduction and the alloy chemistry with the presence of minor alloying additions of Nb and Ti facilitate the strengthening by precipitation and formation of Laves phase both inside grains and along grain boundaries during exposure in the intermediate SOFC operating temperature range. The Laves phase formed along the grain boundaries also ties up Si and prevents the formation of an insulating silica layer at the scale/metal interface during prolonged exposure. The substantial increase in ASR during long term oxidation due to oxide scale growth suggested the need for a conductive protection layer, which could also minimize Cr evaporation. In particular, Mn1.5Co1.5O4 based surface coatings on planar coupons drastically improved the electrical performance of the 441, yielding stable ASR values at 800oC for over 5,000 hours. Ce-modified spinel coatings retained the advantages of the unmodified spinel coatings, and also appeared to alter the scale growth behavior beneath the coating, leading to a more adherent scale. The spinel protection layers appeared also to improve the surface stability of 441 against the anomalous oxidation that has been observed for ferritic stainless steels exposed to dual atmosphere conditions similar to SOFC interconnect environments. Hence, it is anticipated that, compared to unmodified spinel coatings, the Ce-modified coatings may lead to superior structural stability and electrical performance.