Surface-modified ferritic interconnect materials for solid oxide fuel cells

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors showed that dopant additions increase the electronic conductivity of alumina forming scale alloys, such as FeCrAlY, transforming from a mixed ionic/electronic conduction mechanism.

Abstract: Interconnects are a critical element of an SOFC assembly and although much work has focused on chromium and chromium-iron alloys containing an oxide that is both oxidation resistant and electrically conductive, the thermal instability of typical native metal oxides allow interdiffusion of cations across the interconnect-electrode boundary that ultimately leads to degradation of SOFC performance. Phase I of the SECA Core Technology Program has been a one-year effort to investigate and evaluate the feasibility of: (1) Ion implanting an alumina-scale forming ferritic steel, such as FeCrAlY, to form an interconnect material with low resistance ( 1000 hours at 800 C) in contact with an LSF cathode material. We confirmed, as part of our oxidation kinetics evaluation of FeCrAlY and 430 ferritic steel, the parabolic growth of a mixed chromia/alumina scale on FeCrAlY and a single chromia layer in the case of the 430 stainless steel; the outer contiguous layer of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, in the case of FeCrAlY, forming a stable, self-limiting, protective scale with no detectable cation interdiffusion between FeCrAlY and an LSF electrode even after 1000 hours at 800 C in air. To render the alumina scale conductive, we implanted either titanium or niobium ions into FeCrAlY scales to a fixed depth (0.12 {micro}m), varying only the thickness of the oxide. ASR for an un-doped FeCrAlY oxide scale (i.e., alumina) was more than an order of magnitude greater than the 430 control sample whereas, the ASR for the doped FeCrAlY oxide scale sample was comparable to the 430 control sample; hence, the resistance of a doped alumina scale on FeCrAlY was equal to the resistance of a chromia-scale forming alloy, such as 430 (chromia scales of which are typically < 0.1 {Omega}-cm). Along with the ASR measurements, AC impedance measurements were conducted to evaluate conduction mechanisms. From the AC impedance measurements, we observed that the addition of niobium resulted in at least a two order of magnitude reduction in resistance over the un-doped specimen and that the conduction in the doped alumina scale was pure electronic conduction, as opposed to mixed ionic-electronic conduction (dominated by intrinsic (ionic) defects) for the un-doped alumina scales. The DC resistance component was {approx}4 {Omega} although when this value is adjusted to account for the system resistance (i.e., leads, junctions, etc.), the ASR was determined to be < 0.1 {Omega}-cm; even after 1000 hours at 800 C in air. Our results have clearly shown that dopant additions increase the electronic conductivity of alumina forming scale alloys, such as FeCrAlY, transforming from a mixed ionic/electronic conduction mechanism. Just as importantly, the demonstrated stable formation of an alumina scale was shown to be an advantage over conventional pure chromia forming alloys as interconnect materials.