Development and characterisation of (Ni, Cu, Co)-YSZ and Cu-Co-YSZ cermets anode materials for SOFC application

To improve the internal reforming reactions at SOFC anode, alternative (Ni, Cu, Co) -YSZ and Cu-Co-YSZ anode cermets materials are coated by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS). The spray parameters including carrying gas flow rate, spraying distance, argon flow rate and hydrogen flow rate were investigated by an orthogonal experiment to fabricate gas-permeable anode cermets coatings. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction are used to characterise the morphology and structure of coated films respectively. The porosity was deduced by the statistical image analysis. By proper selection of the spray parameters to decrease the particles velocity and temperature, the sprayed coatings monometallic and bimetallic ones show that the cross porosity is dependent of metal weight ratio. In fact, when the metal percentage increases, the porosity decreases. Monometallic Ni-YSZ, Cu-YSZ and Co-YSZ cermets with a weight ratio of (3:2) appear to be less porous than those with (1:1) and (2:3) ones respectively, to reach a maximum porosity of 21.57% for Co-YSZ cermet of (2:3) weight ratio. Cu-Co-YSZ bimetallic cermet coating with weight ratio of (0.5:1:2.5) is more porous than those with (1:2:3) and (2:1:2) weight ratios respectively. Its porosity is about 19.15% which is closed to that of Ni-YSZ (2:3) coating. The X-ray diffraction results showed that the metal content in the cermets have a negligible influence on the crystalline phase structure. Such bimetallic materials anode are very interesting because Co diffuses in Cu lattice offering thus, best electronic conductivity, thermal stability and an avoided carbon formation, by replacing Ni with an electron conductor such as Cu that does not catalyze carbon formation.