Analysis of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell LSM-YSZ Composite Cathodes With Varying Starting Powder Sizes

Solid oxide fuel cell cathodes have been examined using non-destructive x-ray nanotomography. The cathodes examined were a composite of strontium-doped lanthanum manganite (LSM) and yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), with three different starting powder sizes of 0.3 μm, 0.5 μm, and 1 μm. Differential absorption contrast imaging was performed over the manganese K-edge (6539 eV) for the identification of the LSM, YSZ, and pore phases. The three phases were each segmented from reconstruction of the tomography data. Three dimensional volumes of the segmented phases were used to calculate structural characterization parameters of the sample including porosity, pore size distributions, and mean phase sizes. These parameters are reported and some correlations are drawn to the starting powder size.