Preparation of fibrous Ni-coated-YSZ anodes for solid oxide fuel cells

A novel route to fabricate nanofiber-derived low-Ni-content anodes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is presented. Uniform YSZ nanofibers were first synthesized by electrospinning of 8YSZ dispersion; the fiber surfaces were then electrolessly plated with a layer of Ni after sintering of the electrospun fibers. The Ni-YSZ nanofibers were slurry coated as the anode onto a commercial half cell that was subsequently tested. The deposited anode was found to have a Ni loading of 30 wt%, a value well below the conventional percolation threshold. A second cell with the same Ni content in the anode, prepared by conventional ball-milling of individual powders, was also fabricated and tested. We found that the peak power density for the cell with the fiber-derived anode is twice of that with the powder-derived anode, which was attributed to the former's larger TPB sites.