Thermal stability of atmospheric plasma sprayed (Ni, Cu, Co)–YSZ and Ni–Cu–Co–YSZ anodes cermets for SOFC application

This paper reports the results of the thermal stability study of M–YSZ (M=Ni, Cu, Co, Cu–Co, Ni–Cu–Co) SOFC anode cermets materials at different heat treatment temperatures. The cermets were elaborated by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) with optimized conditions and then submitted to heat treatments at 800 and 1000 °C, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were used to characterize, respectively, the morphology and structure of obtained films, before and after thermal annealing. A correlation was made between the differential scanning calorimetry analysis results and those obtained by X-ray diffraction. Focusing, in this study, on YSZ matrix thermal stability, the obtained results were as follows: the monometallic cermets with the lowest amount of metal and the trimetallic one exhibited a good stability at 800 °C, whereas at 1000 °C, all considered cermets were unstable with a eutectoid decomposition of YSZ matrix.