Electrochemical Interfacial Studies of Heterogeneous Catalysis for Biogas fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Abstract

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is an energy conversion device that directly converts the chemical energy of biogas/methane (fuels) into electricity. When using biogas/methane as a fuel, the traditional nickel-based anode is required to improve SOFC performance. While impressive growth has been made in the development of other anode materials, nickel-based anodes with high catalytic activity for biogas/methane fuels are still the promising anode for the commercialization of SOFCs. The nickel, copper, and ceria-based anode have been verified as an effective way to increase the performance and long-term stability of hydrocarbon-based SOFC. Thus, to improve the catalytic activity (NiCu)xCe1-xO and NiCu1-xCexO anode materials are synthesized. The prepared materials are (NiCu)xCe1-xO and NiCu1-xCexO where (x=0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1) using solid state method. The structural analysis is studied through X-Ray Diffractometry (XRD). The average crystallite size of all materials ≈ 28 nm. The XRD pattern of (NiCu)xCe1-xO and NiCu1-xCexO describes that oxide materials have multiphase which shows the heterogeneous nature. The XRD patterns also confirmed that the biogas/methane used as fuel show good results for prepared samples. The important structural properties of the samples are analyzed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and the data recording range is 4000-500 cm-1 . Raman spectroscopy detects vibrational, rotational states in a molecular system, capable of analyzing the chemical composition of materials. The electrical conductivity was measured with a KD2531E low resistance ohmmeter and the maximum conductivity is obtained 8.43 Scm-1 at temperature 650 ℃. The activation energy of samples is also calculated. The asymmetrical three layers cells are fabricated for testing of fuel cell performance in the temperature range of 400-600 ℃ biogas/methane as a fuel. The maximum OCV was obtained 1.52 V at 600 ℃.