Direct comparison between X-ray nanotomography and scanning electron microscopy for the microstructure characterization of a solid oxide fuel cell anode

X-ray computed nanotomography (nano-CT) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been applied to characterize the microstructure of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) anode. A direct comparison between the results of both methods is conducted on the same region of the microstructure to assess the spatial resolution of the nano-CT microstructure, SEM being taken as a reference. A registration procedure is proposed to find out the position of the SEM image within the nano-CT volume. It involves a second SEM observation, which is taken along an orthogonal direction and gives an estimate reference SEM image position, which is then refined by an automated optimization procedure. This enables an unbiased comparison between the cell porosity morphologies provided by both methods. In the present experiment, nano-CT is shown to underestimate the number of pores smaller than 1 μm and overestimate the size of the pores larger than 1.5 μm.

► X-ray computed nanotomography (nano-CT) and SEM are used to characterize an SOFC anode.
► A methodology is proposed to compare the nano-CT and SEM data on the same region.
► The spatial resolution of the nano-CT data is assessed from that comparison.