Effects of the Use of Pore Formers on Performance of an Anode Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

The effects of amount of pore former used to produce porosity in the anode of an anode supported planar solid oxide fuel cell were examined. The pore-forming material utilized was rice starch. The reduction rate of the anode material was measured by Thermogravimetric analysis to qualitatively characterize the gas transport within the porous anode materials. Fuel cells with varying amounts of porosity produced by using rice starch as a pore former were tested. The performance of the fuel cell was the greatest with an optimum amount of pore former used to create porosity in the anode. This optimum is believed to be related to a trade off between increasing gas diffusion to the active three-phase boundary region of the anode and the loss of performance because of the replacement of active three-phase boundary regions of the anode with porosity.