Effect of microstructure refinement on performance of Ni/Ce0.8Gd0.2O1.9 anodes for low temperature solid oxide fuel cell

To clarify the role of milling process on polarization resistance of Ni/GDC cermet anodes for low temperature solid oxide fuel cell (LT-SOFC), an anode with the structure of NiO/Ce0.8Gd0.2O2−δ (NiO/GDC20) was prepared via two different milling processes, including conventional ball-milling (CBM) and high energy ball-milling (HEBM). NiO/GDC20 anode composites were fabricated by screen-printing of the milled powders on the dense sintered GDC electrolyte substrate. By employing electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis, the effect of the milling process intensity on the LT-SOFC anode performance was examined using a symmetric Ni–GDC20/GDC20/Pt electrolyte-supported cell at 400–600 °C. Microstructural studies of NiO/GDC composite powders showed effectiveness of HEBM method on disintegration of CBM aggregates. HEBM powder with much finer particle size showed smaller crystallites than the CBM powder, which led to a finer-grained uniformly-distributed Ni/GDC anode microstructure. In comparison with the anode prepared by CBM powder, the resulted cermet anode showed further GDC lattice expansion, lower anodic polarization resistance, and also decreased activation energy for hydrogen oxidation reaction. Detailed anode impedance analysis showed dominant role of the charge transfer process and rate determining step of dissociation/adsorption/diffusion in hydrogen-oxidation reaction of both Ni/GDC anodes. In addition, evaluation of activation energy showed enhancement of the charge transfer and dissociation/adsorption/diffusion steps with finer-grained microstructure. It is found that the refinement of microstructure has a significant role on the anode polarization resistance and related electrochemical processes.