摘要/Abstract
固体氧化物燃料电池(solid oxide fuel cell, SOFC)是一种清洁高效的发电装置, 其运行中的性能衰减受到众多因素的影响, 如何分辨这些因素的贡献、并在此基础上确定衰减的主导因素, 对于更有针对性地提升SOFC的运行寿命至关重要. 广泛的测试结果表明, SOFC的电化学性能在运行初期(约前100 h)会发生最为显著且复杂的变化, 但是对其演变机制还没有形成清晰的认识. 本工作基于电化学阻抗谱(electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, EIS)分析方法分别研究了工业尺寸电池(100 cm2)和纽扣电池(0.45 cm2)在运行初期的电化学性能演变规律, 得到了关于电池性能和电极微观结构演变机制的一致性规律. 电池在运行初期依次经历活化阶段和老化阶段: 活化阶段阳极孔隙率增加、气相扩散过程改善, 电池性能逐渐上升; 老化阶段阳极Ni颗粒发生烧结团聚, 有效三相界面长度显著降低, 阳极界面反应过程劣化, 电池性能逐渐下降. 各阶段的持续时间、性能变化幅度会受到电池制备工艺的影响. 本工作提出的运行初期电化学性能演变机制能够为进一步研究SOFC的长期稳定性奠定基础.
关键词: 固体氧化物燃料电池, 稳定性, 衰减机理, 电化学阻抗谱, 弛豫时间分布
Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a clean and efficient power generation device, which has been widely used in recent years. However, its operation lifetime still needs to be improved to meet the requirements for further commercialization. The performance degradation of SOFCs is affected by many factors. It is very important to distinguish these factors and determine the dominant factor(s) for improving the operation lifetime in a more efficient manner. In this paper, the initial operation stage (<100 h) of SOFCs is mainly focused, in which the electrochemical performance changes most significantly. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was periodically monitored during the operation process. Individual electrode processes of button cells and industrial-size cells were distinguished via distribution of relaxation time (DRT) method and subsequent equivalent circuit model (ECM) fitting. Through detailed time-varying analysis of EIS, the changes of different electrode processes in the initial-stage operation were obtained, and the evolution mechanism of electrochemical performance was proposed. After reduction, SOFCs go through activation stage and aging stage in turn: i) In the activation stage, the anode porosity increases and the gas-phase diffusion process is enhanced, resulting in the improvement of cell performance. ii) In the aging stage, the Ni particles in the anode agglomerate, so the effective three phase boundary (TPB) density decreases, which leads to the degradation of anode charge transfer reaction and the drop of cell performance. This evolution mechanism of electrochemical performance was partially confirmed by detailed microstructure characterization. It should be mentioned that the duration of each stage and the performance change in each stage can be affected by the initial electrode structure. Therefore, in previous studies, it was observed that some cells did not show activation process during initial-stage operation, but directly entered the aging stage. Besides, during longer-term operation of the cell (>100 h), we speculate that the dominant degradation mechanism is the continuous increase of the anode interface reaction-related resistance, which is caused by the agglomeration of Ni particles. However, since the anode structure is gradually stable, the degradation rate of cell performance decreases with respect to the operation time.
Key words: solid oxide fuel cell, stability, degradation mechanism, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, distribution of relaxation time
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