Electrodeposition of Cu into a Highly Porous Ni/YSZ Cermet

The electrochemical deposition of Cu into 0.12 cm and 60 μm thick, highly porous 65 vol % Ni/yttriastabilized zirconia (YSZ) cermets was investigated. An electrochemical cell in which the electrolyte solution was allowed to flow through a porous Ni/YSZ substrate was used to eliminate mass-transfer limitations and to determine the conditions for which the potential drop in the electrolyte solution was minimized and a uniform Cu layer was produced throughout the porous substrate. The conditions determined from these experiments were then used to electrodeposit Cu throughout a thin, porous Ni–YSZ cermet anode layer on a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) using a standard nonflow-through setup. This SOFC was found to exhibit stable operation while using methane as the fuel. Comments Postprint version. Copyright The Electrochemical Society, Inc. 2006. All rights reserved. Except as provided under U.S. copyright law, this work may not be reproduced, resold, distributed, or modified without the express permission of The Electrochemical Society (ECS). The archival version of this work was published in Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Volume 153, Issue 8, 2006, pages A1539-A1543. Publisher URL: http://scitation.aip.org/JES/ This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/cbe_papers/79 1 Electrodeposition of Cu into a Highly Porous Ni/YSZ Cermet Sukwon Jung, Michael D. Gross, Raymond J. Gorte, and John M. Vohs Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA USA