Collaborative Research: Three-Dimensional Microstructural and Chemical Mapping of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electrodes: Processing, Structure, Stability, and Electrochemistry

合作研究：固体氧化物燃料电池电极的三维微观结构和化学测绘：加工、结构、稳定性和电化学

• 批准号: 0907639
• 负责人: Scott Barnett
• 金额: $ 90万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2013-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0907639&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Three; Dimensional; Microstructural

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) offer an important new option for converting fuels to electricity with increased efficiency, reduced pollution, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The race to reap the commercial and environmental benefits of this technology is largely being decided by practical issues, including cost and device reliability. The proposed project seeks to better understand how SOFC performance and reliability are linked to manufacturing methods and constituent materials properties, by the acquisition and analysis of three-dimensional images of the fuel cells. Such images can be used to determine what structures yield improved performance and hence reduced cost, find manufacturing conditions that yield the desired structure/chemistry, and examine the factors causing fuel cells to degrade over time. The improved structural and chemical information will be disseminated to the fuel cell research and development community where it will help enable critical connections, for example between industrial developers ? who need reliable performance/lifetime predictions ? and modelers ? who require good structural/chemical information to make such predictions. A substantial number of graduate and undergraduate students, in many cases from underrepresented groups, will receive training through this project. There are a number of other educational impacts, including high-school science teachers participating in summer research.TECHNICAL DETAILS: The limited quantitative information available on electrode structure and interfacial chemistry poses a major barrier to fundamental understanding of fuel cell performance and stability. This Focused Research Group is examining the relationships between the processing, structure, and electrochemical properties of key SOFC materials, utilizing a set of tools based on focused ion beam ? scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) to determine the microstructure of SOFC electrodes in three-dimensions (3D). The project includes fabrication of state-of-the-art SOFCs, detailed electrochemical characterization using novel impedance spectroscopy methods, structural measurement using FIB-SEM, segmentation of the data into 3D phase maps, visualization of the microstructures, extraction of macrohomogeneous structural parameters, and simulations of microstructural coarsening and electrochemical polarization based directly on 3D data sets. Additional information regarding interdiffusion, accumulation of cation species and/or impurities at interfaces, and second phases is obtained with analytical scanning transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis and synchrotron X-ray methods. Availability of this 3D microstructure information will be instrumental for transforming our understanding of how fuel cell electrodes work to a more quantitative science. Broad impacts of the project include the continued growth of a 3D structural data library available to researchers/developers nationwide, and development of analysis tools relevant to the broader 3D microstructure community. Students and teachers involved in the project receive training on state of the art tools for fuel-cell fabrication, electrochemical testing, microscopy, and materials modeling.

该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助。非技术说明：固体氧化物燃料电池(SOFC)为将燃料转化为电力提供了一种重要的新选择，具有更高的效率、更少的污染和更少的温室气体排放。获得这项技术的商业和环境效益的竞赛在很大程度上取决于包括成本和设备可靠性在内的实际问题。拟议的项目旨在通过获取和分析燃料电池的三维图像，更好地了解SOFC的性能和可靠性与制造方法和组成材料属性之间的联系。这样的图像可以用来确定什么结构可以提高性能从而降低成本，找到产生所需结构/化学物质的制造条件，并检查导致燃料电池随着时间的推移而退化的因素。改进的结构和化学信息将被传播到燃料电池研发社区，在那里它将有助于实现关键的联系，例如工业开发商之间的联系？谁需要可靠的性能/生命周期预测？模特儿呢？他们需要良好的结构/化学信息才能做出这样的预测。相当数量的研究生和本科生将通过这一项目接受培训，其中许多学生来自代表性不足的群体。还有一些其他的教育影响，包括参加暑期研究的高中科学教师。技术细节：关于电极结构和界面化学的有限定量信息对从根本上理解燃料电池的性能和稳定性构成了主要障碍。这个重点研究小组正在利用一套基于聚焦离子束的工具，研究关键SOFC材料的工艺、结构和电化学性质之间的关系。采用扫描电子显微镜(FIB-SEM)对SOFC电极的微观结构进行三维(3D)分析。该项目包括制造最先进的SOFC，使用新型阻抗谱方法进行详细的电化学表征，使用FIB-SEM进行结构测量，将数据分割成3D相图，可视化微结构，提取宏观均匀结构参数，以及直接基于3D数据集模拟微结构粗化和电化学极化。通过分析扫描电子显微镜(TEM)分析和同步辐射X射线方法，获得了关于界面和第二相的相互扩散、阳离子物种和/或杂质积累的其他信息。这种3D微结构信息的可获得性将有助于将我们对燃料电池电极工作原理的理解转变为更定量的科学。该项目的广泛影响包括向全国研究人员/开发人员提供的3D结构数据库的持续增长，以及与更广泛的3D微结构社区相关的分析工具的开发。参与该项目的学生和教师接受关于燃料电池制造、电化学测试、显微镜和材料建模的最先进工具的培训。