Electrochemical behavior and performances of
Ni-BaZr
0·1
Ce
0·7
Y
0.1
Yb
0.1
O
3¡d
cermet anodes for
protonic ceramic fuel cell
P. Pers, V. Mao, M. Taillades, G. Taillades
*
ICGM-AIME Universit e de Montpellier, France
article info
Article history:
Received 10 October 2017
Received in revised form
28 November 2017
Accepted 4 December 2017
Available online xxx
Keywords:
Anode
Protonic ceramic fuel cell
Cermet
Hydrogen oxidation reaction
abstract
High performance Ni-BCZYYb cermet anode were prepared at 1300
C using electrolyte
powders prepared by combustion and commercial NiO. The cermets are porous (39 vol% of
porosity), show a high electronic conductivity (1097 S cm
1
) and sufficient mechanical
properties. The electrochemical behavior of the Ni-BCZYYb/BZCYYb-ZnO/Ni-BCZYYb
symmetrical cell elaborated by co-pressing and co-sintering was investigated using elec-
trochemical impedance spectroscopy. The impedance spectroscopy study show that the
electrode reaction involves three steps. The total polarization Area Specific Resistance
decreases by about one order of magnitude when increasing the temperature from 450 to
600
C or the H
2
concentration from 5 to 100 vol% to reach 0.049 U cm
2
at 600
C under pure
hydrogen.
© 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Fuel Cells have attracted considerable attention for their high-
energy conversion efficiency and low environmental impact.
The current trend for solid oxide fuel cells development is to
reduce the operating temperature to intermediate range
(500e700
C). Compared to oxide ionic conductors such as
YSZ, solid oxide proton conductors show much lower activa-
tion energy and are potential candidates as electrolytes for
fuel cell operation in the 400e600
C temperature range.
During the last decade, considerable efforts have been
devoted to improve the performances of Protonic Ceramic
Fuel Cells (PCFC) and maximum power density beyond 0.4 W/
cm
2
have been already achieved at 600
C by using Ba(Ce, Zr)
O
3-d
-based proton conducting ceramic cells [1e6]. To reach
these performances in the intermediate temperature range
(400e600
C), electrolyte with high protonic conductivity but
also cathode and anode materials with good electrochemical
performances are needed.
Among potential performing electrolytes,
BaZr
0$1
Ce
0$7
Y
0.1
Yb
0.1
O
3-d
(BZCYYb) have a high ionic conduc-
tivity and sufficient chemical and thermal stabilities in H
2
O-
and CO
2
- containing atmospheres [7]. At temperature below
750
C, BZCYYb shows a higher conductivity (5.10
2
S cm
1
at
600
C) [8] than oxygen ions (YSZ or GDC) [9] or conventional
proton-conducting electrolytes [10]. Concerning the cathode
materials, many composite cathode materials have been used
for PCFC including conventional mixed ionic-electronic ma-
terials [11,12] and new materials [13] to extend Triple Phase
Boundaries (TPB) from the cathode/electrolyte interface to the
entire cathode bulk, and thus promoting electrochemical
activity.
Compared to the amount of studies on electrolyte and
cathode materials, works on anode materials are relatively
scare [14e16].
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: gilles.taillades@umontpellier.fr (G. Taillades).
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he
international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (2017) 1 e8
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.12.024
0360-3199/© 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Pers P, et al., Electrochemical behavior and performances of Ni-BaZr
0$1
Ce
0$7
Y
0.1
Yb
0.1
O
3d
cermet
anodes for protonic ceramic fuel cell, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.12.024