In-situ quantification of solid oxide fuel cell electrode microstructure by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

•3D Ni-YSZ anode microstructure is reconstructed by XCT.•Tortuosity factor of pores of the anode is estimated by DRT of impedance.•Results of tortuosity factor by DRT analysis agree well with that by XCT analysis.•DRT is a feasible technique for in-situ quantification of SOFC microstructures.

Three-dimensional (3D) microstructure of solid oxide fuel cell electrodes plays critical roles in determining fuel cell performance. The state-of-the-art quantification technique such as X-ray computed tomography enables direct calculation of geometric factors by 3D microstructure reconstruction. Taking advantages of in-situ, fast-responding and low cost, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy represented by distribution of relaxation time (DRT) is a novel technique to estimate geometric properties of fuel cell electrodes. In this study, we employed the anode supported cells with the cell configuration of Ni-YSZ || YSZ || LSM-YSZ as an example and compared the tortuosity factor of pores of the anode substrate layer by X-ray computed tomography and DRT analysis. Good agreement was found, validating the feasibility of in-situ microstructural quantification by using the DRT technique.

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