Preliminary Results for a Methanol Fuelled SOFC Tubular Stack with Nanocrystalline 8YSZ Electrolyte

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary result from characterization, development and testing of a nanocrystalline structured 8mol% yttrium stabilized zircona (8YSZ) electrolyte. Bright field TEM images showed a range of particle sizes, upwards of 40 nm. The selected area diffraction pattern indicated the presence of a very fine nanostructure. The crystal structure of the nanocrystalline electrolyte powder was characterized using XRD and was shown to be cubic. Initial electrochemical testing was performed using pellet fuel cells, 31 mm dia by 5 mm, in a custom designed testing rig. This allowed a comparison between standard 8YSZ electrolyte and nano crystalline structured 8YSZ. The initial nano crystalline structured 8YSZ was shown to have a 10% increase in power density at 800 degree C compared to the standard 8YSZ.