Three-dimensional reconstruction of a solid-oxide fuel-cell anode
Three-dimensional reconstruction of a solid-oxide fuel-cell anode
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DOI：
10.1038/nmat1668
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发表时间：
2006-07
期刊：
影响因子：
41.2
通讯作者：
James R. Wilson;Worawarit Kobsiriphat;R. Mendoza;Hsun-Yi Chen;J. Hiller;Dean J. Miller;K. Thornton-K.-Thorn
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
James R. Wilson;Worawarit Kobsiriphat;R. Mendoza;Hsun-Yi Chen;J. Hiller;Dean J. Miller;K. Thornton-K.-Thorn
提高能源效率和减少空气污染的努力加速了全球燃料电池的发展。随着燃料电池性能和成本的提高，构成燃料电池的材料在成分和微观结构上都变得越来越复杂。特别是，最先进的燃料电池电极通常具有复杂的微/纳米结构，涉及互连的电子和离子导电相、气相孔隙度和催化活性表面。确定这种微观结构是材料特性/加工和电极性能之间的关键但通常缺失的联系。当前的微观结构分析方法，例如扫描电子显微镜，仅提供微观结构的二维轶事，因此关于区域如何在三维空间中互连的信息有限。在这里，我们演示了使用双束聚焦离子束扫描电子显微镜对固体氧化物燃料电池电极进行完整的三维重建。我们使用这些数据来计算关键的微观结构特征，例如特定相的体积分数和表面积、三相边界长度以及特定子相的连通性和弯曲度。
The drive towards increased energy efficiency and reduced air pollution has led to accelerated worldwide development of fuel cells. As the performance and cost of fuel cells have improved, the materials comprising them have become increasingly sophisticated, both in composition and microstructure. In particular, state-of-the-art fuel-cell electrodes typically have a complex micro/nano-structure involving interconnected electronically and ionically conducting phases, gas-phase porosity, and catalytically active surfaces. Determining this microstructure is a critical, yet usually missing, link between materials properties/processing and electrode performance. Current methods of microstructural analysis, such as scanning electron microscopy, only provide two-dimensional anecdotes of the microstructure, and thus limited information about how regions are interconnected in three-dimensional space. Here we demonstrate the use of dual-beam focused ion beam–scanning electron microscopy to make a complete three-dimensional reconstruction of a solid-oxide fuel-cell electrode. We use this data to calculate critical microstructural features such as volume fractions and surface areas of specific phases, three-phase boundary length, and the connectivity and tortuosity of specific subphases.