Laser surface melting has been applied to near eutectic NiO-YSZ sintered ceramics. The objective is to generate a functional gradient composite material with graded microstructure and composition. At low solidification rates the resultant material has a graded composition, with a severe NiO segregation towards the surface. A thick NiO layer whose thickness depends on the travelling speed is for...

Anode aluminum oxide-supported thin-film fuel cells having a sub-500-nm-thick bilayered electrolyte comprising a gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC) layer and an yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) layer were fabricated and electrochemically characterized in order to investigate the effect of the YSZ protective layer. The highly dense and thin YSZ layer acted as a blockage against electron and oxygen per...

Degradation of solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) is probably the biggest concern in the field of high temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE). Anode supported, YSZ-based microtubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) have been tested in fuel cell mode and also at high voltages (up to 2.8V) under electrolysis mode. At high steam conversion rates the cell voltage tends to saturate. Our hypothesis ...

The perpendicular exchange bias field, H(EB), of the magnetoelectric heterostructure Cr2O3(111)/(Co/Pt)(3) changes sign after field cooling to below the Néel temperature of Cr2O3 in either parallel or antiparallel axial magnetic and electric freezing fields. The switching of H(EB) is explained by magnetoelectrically induced antiferromagnetic single domains which extend to the interface, where t...

Relativity theory is useful for understanding the phenomenology of the magnetoelectric effect of the antiferromagnet chromium sesquioxide Cr2O3 in two respects: (i) One gets a clear idea about the physical dimensions of the electromagnetic quantities involved, in particular about the dimensions of the magnetoelectric moduli that we suggest to tabulate in future as dimensionless relative quantit...

We employed operando anomalous surface X-ray diffraction to investigate the buried interface between the cathode and the electrolyte of a model solid oxide fuel cell with atomic resolution. The cell was studied under different oxygen pressures at elevated temperatures and polarizations by external potential control. Making use of anomalous X-ray diffraction effects at the Y and Zr K-edges allow...

In our study, the Ni/YSZ ReaxFF reactive force field was developed by combining the YSZ and Ni/C/H descriptions. ReaxFF reactive molecular dynamics (RMD) were applied to model chemical reactions, diffusion, and other physicochemical processes at the fuel/Ni/YSZ interface. The ReaxFF RMD simulations were performed on the H2/Ni/YSZ and C4H10/Ni/YSZ triple-phase boundary (TPB) systems at 1250 and ...

We have fabricated exchange-biased Co/Pt layers ((0.3 nm/1.5 nm) 3) on (0 01)-oriented Cr2O3 thin films. The multilayered films showed extremely smooth surfaces and interfaces with root mean square roughness of E0.3 nm for 10mm 10mm area. The Cr2O3 films display sufficient insulation with a relative low leakage current (1.17 10 A/cm at 380MV/m) at room temperature which allowed us to apply elec...

Anodes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have been prepared by electrodeposition of either Co or Ni into a layer of porous yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), 60 μm thick. The YSZ, having 65% porosity, was prepared by tape casting with graphite pore formers and was attached to the dense YSZ electrolyte. After adding 10 vol % CeO2 by impregnation of aqueous solutions of CeNO3)3, followed by calci...

It is well known that several ceramic materials develop an usual; and sometimes unique; combination of properties as a result of mixing different phases with similar expansion coefficients. Sometimes they are elastically stiff, have relatively low thermal expansion coefficients, good thermal and electrical conductivities, and are resistant to chemical attack. As this paper will show, their mech...