Research of carbon deposition formation and judgment in Cu-CeO2-ScSZ anodes for direct ethanol solid oxide fuel cells

We have been researching Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) with Cu-CeO2-ScSZ (scandia stabilized zirconia) anodes operating directly on ethanol fuels in recent years. In this paper, Cu-CeO2-ScSZ anodes with different Cu/CeO2 composition are fabricated by dry pressing, sintering and wet impregnation technologies. The photographs and SEM images of these samples after exposure to ethanol fuels for 300 h are observed to characterize their carbon deposition behaviors. The different deposited carbon morphologies in the anodes with different compositions are recorded, and possible reaction mechanisms and prevention methods are discussed. Based on these results; we demonstrate the carbon deposition behaviors and degradation reasons for the single cell running in ethanol fuels.