Functional Anode Materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell - A Review

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) have received wide interest due to the associated advantages of environment friendly alternate energy source. Owing to the capability of efficient power generation from a broad spectrum of practical fuels, viz. hydrogen, bio fuels, etc, SOFC finds potential applications in portable, mobile and stationary markets. Presence of multi components, viz. anode, cathode, electrolyte, etc in single cell demands the maintenance of mutual compatibility in SOFC. The present review describes the research work related to the development of anode component. In addition, the present context also highlights the research work at CSIR-CGCRI, Kolkata, India, focussed towards the development of planar anode-supported SOFC. Under this on-going activity, novel electroless technique is employed to prepare nickel (Ni)-8 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) anode. Optimized processing parameters of electroless technique impinge certain interesting features in the cermet, by the virtue of which major shortcomings of conventional Ni-YSZ anode can be eliminated. Single cell with varied anode configurations have been fabricated in which the electroless cermet acts as either anode-support, functional layer or as an electrochemically active counterpart in multilayer anode system. A detailed discussion on the electroless anode is presented in terms of its preparation and properties.