Energies 2013, 6(3), 1632-1656; doi:10.3390/en6031632
Article

Percolation Theory in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Composite Electrodes with a Mixed Electronic and Ionic Conductor

Daifen Chen 1,* email, Huanhuan He 1 email, Donghui Zhang 1 email, Hanzhi Wang 1 email and Meng Ni 2 email
1 School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, Jiangsu, China 2 Building Energy Research Group, Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 6 December 2012; in revised form: 26 February 2013 / Accepted: 6 March 2013 / Published: 11 March 2013
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Abstract: Percolation theory is generalized to predict the effective properties of specific solid oxide fuel cell composite electrodes, which consist of a pure ion conducting material (e.g., YSZ or GDC) and a mixed electron and ion conducting material (e.g., LSCF, LSCM or CeO2). The investigated properties include the probabilities of an LSCF particle belonging to the electron and ion conducting paths, percolated three-phase-boundary electrochemical reaction sites, which are based on different assumptions, the exposed LSCF surface electrochemical reaction sites and the revised expressions for the inter-particle ionic conductivities among LSCF and YSZ materials. The effects of the microstructure parameters, such as the volume fraction of the LSCF material, the particle size distributions of both the LSCF and YSZ materials (i.e., the mean particle radii and the non-dimensional standard deviations, which represent the particle size distributions) and the porosity are studied. Finally, all of the calculated results are presented in non-dimensional forms to provide generality for practical application. Based on these results, the relevant properties can be easily evaluated, and the microstructure parameters and intrinsic properties of each material are specified.
Keywords: solid oxide fuel cell; percolation theory; mixed electron and ion conductor; LSCF; coordination number; three-phase-boundary sites; electrochemically active sites

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MDPI and ACS Style

Chen, D.; He, H.; Zhang, D.; Wang, H.; Ni, M. Percolation Theory in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Composite Electrodes with a Mixed Electronic and Ionic Conductor. Energies 2013, 6, 1632-1656.

AMA Style

Chen D, He H, Zhang D, Wang H, Ni M. Percolation Theory in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Composite Electrodes with a Mixed Electronic and Ionic Conductor. Energies. 2013; 6(3):1632-1656.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chen, Daifen; He, Huanhuan; Zhang, Donghui; Wang, Hanzhi; Ni, Meng. 2013. "Percolation Theory in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Composite Electrodes with a Mixed Electronic and Ionic Conductor." Energies 6, no. 3: 1632-1656.

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