GOALI: Simple Low Cost Methods for Making Conductive Interfacial Coatings for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

GOALI：制作固体氧化物燃料电池导电界面涂层的简单低成本方法

• 批准号: 1362680
• 负责人: Jiahong Zhu
• 金额: $ 34.99万
• 依托单位: Tennessee Technological University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-15 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1362680&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GOALI; Simple; Low; Cost; Methods

Fuel cells are a promising technology for converting the chemical energy stored in fuels such as hydrogen and methanol into useful electrical energy in a clean and environmentally sustainable manner. Fuel cells can be used to power a number of devices, from portable electronics to electric vehicles. One type of fuel cell, referred to as a solid-oxide fuel cell or SOFC, is particularly well suited for use in providing power for transportation applications such as electric cars. Today, solid oxide fuel cells can be manufactured that have excellent performance, but the electrical power output and efficiency of those fuel cells degrade quickly over time. This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) award supports the development of new materials and a new manufacturing technique that can overcome one of the problems leading to this degradation in SOFC fuel cell performance. In particular, failure often occurs at the point at which the electrical wiring is connected to the parts of the fuel cell where chemical reactions take place to create the electric current. In this work, a new method and material for making this electrical connection to the fuel cell will be developed that will greatly increase the operating lifetime of SOFC fuel cells. This project will be conducted as a collaboration between university and industrial partners, which will provide a pathway for commercial application of the scientific advances made in the work. The scientific and societal broader impacts of the project will stem from the wide number of applications fuel cells in industry and society for clean power generation. The award will support training and education of undergraduate and graduate students in an integrated university-industry team environment, and the development of outreach programs directed at K-12 students to stimulate interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers by using fuel cells and electric power production as hands-on demonstration platforms. The goal of this project is to study the fundamentals of a new process in which the electrical interconnect layer at the fuel cell cathode and the porous cathode itself are made in a one-step process that can be simple and inexpensive, thus solving a major problem in SOFC commercial development. In this work, a process will be developed in which the cathode and electric interconnect interface is processed in one step using reactive sintering. This research will be the first attempt to systematically study the mechanistic aspects of environmentally-assisted reactive sintering for synthesis of spinel layers with metallic powders as the starting materials. Such spinel layers could be an ideal interface material at the cathode-interconnect interface. The reactive sintering process will be applied to synthesize a spinel-based dual-layer structure that can serve as both interconnect coating and cathode-side contact layer. The promising dual-layer spinel structures will then be critically evaluated with regard to its applicability as a cathode-interconnect interface. Cost reduction and improvement in long-term stack performance stability afforded by the spinel dual-layer structure will contribute to the commercial viability of the solid oxide fuel cell technology.

燃料电池是一种很有前途的技术，可以将氢和甲醇等燃料中储存的化学能以清洁和环境可持续的方式转化为有用的电能。燃料电池可以用来为许多设备供电，从便携式电子产品到电动汽车。一种被称为固体氧化物燃料电池或SOFC的燃料电池特别适合用于为电动汽车等交通应用提供电力。今天，可以制造出性能优异的固体氧化物燃料电池，但随着时间的推移，这些燃料电池的电能输出和效率会迅速下降。这一学术联系机会奖(GOALI)支持新材料和新制造技术的开发，可以克服导致SOFC燃料电池性能下降的问题之一。特别是，故障经常发生在电线连接到燃料电池发生化学反应以产生电流的部分的点上。在这项工作中，将开发一种将这种电连接到燃料电池的新方法和材料，这将大大提高SOFC燃料电池的使用寿命。该项目将作为大学和工业合作伙伴之间的合作进行，这将为工作中取得的科学进步提供一条商业应用的途径。该项目的科学和社会更广泛的影响将源于燃料电池在工业和社会中用于清洁发电的广泛应用。该奖项将支持在大学与行业一体化的团队环境中对本科生和研究生进行培训和教育，并开发针对K-12学生的外展计划，通过使用燃料电池和电力生产作为实践示范平台来激发对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)职业的兴趣。该项目的目标是研究一种新工艺的基本原理，在这种工艺中，燃料电池阴极处的电互连层和多孔性阴极本身通过一步工艺制成，可以简单且廉价，从而解决SOFC商业开发中的一个主要问题。在这项工作中，将开发一种工艺，在此工艺中，阴极和电互连界面将使用反应烧结一步完成。本研究将首次系统地研究以金属粉末为原料的环境辅助反应烧结合成尖晶石层的机理。这种尖晶石层可能是阴极-互连界面的理想界面材料。反应烧结工艺将被用来合成一种尖晶石基双层结构，既可以作为互连涂层，也可以作为阴极侧接触层。然后，将对前景看好的双层尖晶石结构作为阴极-互连接口的适用性进行严格的评估。尖晶石双层结构提供的成本降低和长期电堆性能稳定性的改善将有助于固体氧化物燃料电池技术的商业可行性。