Enhanced Ni hydrogen electrode performance upon Fe addition studied on model thin films

Abstract

It has been shown in the literature that the electrochemical performance of Ni-yttria stabilized zirconia composite fuel electrodes of solid oxide cells are enhanced upon alloying Ni with Fe. However, the complex porous microstructure of the composite electrodes prevents the determination of the origin of performance enhancement. In this work, we fabricated model Ni and Ni-Fe thin film electrodes via a liquid precursor deposition method so that the microstructural evolution of the metallic electrocatalysts could be observed clearly. It was determined that Fe addition inhibits the agglomeration of the film and the consequent loss of active triple phase boundary length.