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Progress in Materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs): Structure-Performance Correlation

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 July 2025 | Viewed by 1644

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Energy and Mechanic, Università degli studi Guglielmo Marconi, Rome, Italy
Interests: energy; biomass gasification; fuel cell; gas conditioning; electrolyzers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, novel technologies for the production of energy, such as fuel cell systems that combine low CO2 emission outputs with the conversion of fuel to electricity, have been proposed and garnered significant attention as promising energy supplies employing renewed fuels such as hydrogen. Fuel cells present several benefits: (i) high efficiencies (up to 75–85 %); (ii) low or zero CO2 emissions; and (iii) suitability for both stationary and mobile applications. Fuel cells can operate at low and high temperatures depending on the electrolyte used. Among the high-temperature cells, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) show high potentiality due to their total efficiency, which is up to 85% when heat cogeneration is considered. These devices can convert various kinds of fuels into electricity with high efficiency and low levels of catalyst degradation. In addition, if the syngas produced from the biomass gasification process is used as fuel, in order to preserve the performance of the catalyst, hot gas conditioning is normally performed in order to reduce the number of typical contaminants. Thus, for the durable operations of SOFC fuel cells, an efficient gas cleaning phase is essential to remove the critical pollutants that significantly deteriorate the fuel cell systems. In particular, the purpose of this Special Issue is to publish high-quality research papers and review articles that address the study, synthesis, and characterization of advanced materials for SOFC fuel cells, as well as the materials and processes enable to perform a gas cleaning treatment with high efficiency and low cost for the fuel conditioning stage in SOFC applications.

Dr. Alessandro Dell'Era
Dr. Enrico Bocci
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • advanced materials
  • catalysts
  • fuel cells
  • energy production
  • gas cleaning
  • contaminants removal

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 4144 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Pore-Former Size and Volume Fraction on Tape Cast Porous 430 Stainless Steel Substrates for Plasma Spraying
by Yifei Yan and Olivera Kesler
Materials 2024, 17(22), 5408; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17225408 - 5 Nov 2024
Viewed by 462
Abstract
Porous 430L stainless steel disks made by tape casting with various pore-former sizes and volume fractions were evaluated as substrates for solid oxide cell (SOC) fabrication by plasma spraying. This work reports the substrate properties relevant to the SOC operation of disks made [...] Read more.
Porous 430L stainless steel disks made by tape casting with various pore-former sizes and volume fractions were evaluated as substrates for solid oxide cell (SOC) fabrication by plasma spraying. This work reports the substrate properties relevant to the SOC operation of disks made by using extra fine metal powder with dense sintering to minimize the fine porosity between particles. In contrast, the coarse porosity is introduced by the pore former. We found that the 60 μm pore former at a 45 vol% fraction has the best application fit; it gives an adequate gas permeability of 3.11 × 10−13 m2 and an average open pore size of 45.90 μm. Compared to a commercial substrate with a similar porosity perimeter/steel area ratio, the porosity and gas permeability are 1.6 and 3 times higher, respectively. The detected maximum surface pore is 49 μm, allowing gas-tight electrolytes fabricated by plasma spray deposition. Full article
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13 pages, 5169 KiB  
Article
Quantifying Microstructure Features for High-Performance Solid Oxide Cells
by Cristina Mariana Ruse, Lily Ann Hume, Yudong Wang, Thomas C. Pesacreta and Xiao-Dong Zhou
Materials 2024, 17(11), 2622; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17112622 - 29 May 2024
Viewed by 631
Abstract
The drive for sustainable energy solutions has spurred interest in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). This study investigates the impact of sintering temperature on SOFC anode microstructures using advanced 3D focused ion beam–scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM). The anode’s ceramic–metal composition significantly influences electrochemical [...] Read more.
The drive for sustainable energy solutions has spurred interest in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). This study investigates the impact of sintering temperature on SOFC anode microstructures using advanced 3D focused ion beam–scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM). The anode’s ceramic–metal composition significantly influences electrochemical performance, making optimization crucial. Comparing cells sintered at different temperatures reveals that a lower sintering temperature enhances yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and nickel distribution, volume, and particle size, along with the triple-phase boundary (TPB) interface. Three-dimensional reconstructions illustrate that the cell sintered at a lower temperature exhibits a well-defined pore network, leading to increased TPB density. Hydrogen flow simulations demonstrate comparable permeability for both cells. Electrochemical characterization confirms the superior performance of the cell sintered at the lower temperature, displaying higher power density and lower total cell resistance. This FIB-SEM methodology provides precise insights into the microstructure–performance relationship, eliminating the need for hypothetical structures and enhancing our understanding of SOFC behavior under different fabrication conditions. Full article
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