Investigation of the Electrochemical Effect of Rare Earth Materials on Zinc based Anode for SOFC

Abstract

Current scenario of the energy requirements motivates to researchers to explore the renewable energy resources. This also will be helpful to control the climate environmental issues to save the future. Fuel cells have aroused a lot of interest in this activity because of their high conversion efficiency when compared to traditional energy conversion approaches. Because of its low hazardous emissions, pollution, fuel adaptability, and cost-effective components, SOFCs are importance source for energy conversion technologies. Some issues are still need to be addressed, as conventional SOFC works at high temperature but the fact is that the SOFC activity reduces at low temperatures due to interfacial polarization blockages and the oxygen reduction process. In this context, in the present study zinc- based anode materials with composition Ce0.2(Zn0.5 Ni0.5)0.8, Sm0.2(Zn0.5 Ni0.5)0.8, Gd0.2(Zn0.5 Ni0.5)0.8 were synthesized via cost effective sol-gel technique. The effect of rare-earth materials has been investigated in terms of electrochemical properties. Their investigations consist of various characterizations such as Fourier Transformation Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman Spectroscopy, UV-Vis, EIS, and fuel cell performance. FTIR is employed to analyse the chemical composition and its bounding. The FTIR spectrum the band at 1082 cm-1 can be attributed to the O- Ce-O stretching mode of vibration. The FTIR spectrum of zinc oxide nanoparticles absorbs at 648.50 cm−1. The absorption bands in the range of 743 cm−1 correspond to Ni-O stretching vibration mode. The large broad band at 3415cm-1 is ascribe to the O-H stretching vibration in OH groups. Raman spectroscopy is used to detect vibrational, rotational, and other states in a molecular system, capable of probing the chemical composition of materials. The Ce0.2(Zn0.5 Ni0.5)0.8 Raman pattern that the peak at 450-460 cm-1 attributed to Raman-active F2g mode of fluorite-structured CeO2. The Electrochemical properties were investigated by AC Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) technique by 4-probe method under hydrogen atmosphere. The materials show the increasing behavior of conductivity with increasing the operating temperature. UV-visible characterization technique held to examine the optical properties of the sample and used to get the absorbance and reflectance spectra under the selected UV range of 190-800 nm. The fuel cell performance was carried out by making three –layers cell and maximum OCV was obtained 0.53V of Ce(NiZn) material.