Microstructure Evolution in a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack Quantified with Interfacial Free Energy

Degradation of electrode microstructure is one the key factors affecting long term performance Solid Oxide Fuel Cell systems. Evolution a multiphase system can be described quantitatively by change in its interfacial energy. In this paper, we discuss free energy to showcase anisotropy evolution during long-term experiment involving an SOFC stack. Ginzburg Landau type functional used compute energy, using diffuse phase distributions based on Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscopy images samples taken from nine different sites within It shown that rate differs depending position stack, similar anisotropy. However, computed spatial relation does not correlate with observed distribution temperature.