Claudia Christenn

SURFACE SCIENCE STUDY ON THE STABILITY OF VARIOUS CATALYST MATERIALS FOR DMFC

Caused by the electrochemical stresssing in fuel cells the stability of catalysts is a crucial aspect for he life time of fuel cells. In the past several studies of the stability of catalysts in alkaline fuel cells and polymer electrolyte fuel cells were performed. In this paper some investigations by surface science methods of the stability of catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells will be given.

Constrained and non-constrained sintering of plasma-sprayed zirconia based electrolytes for SOFCs

Electrolyte layers for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) consisting typically of yttria-stabilized zirconia were prepared using atmospheric plasma spraying in a first step and sintered in a second one. The influence of particle size on sintering kinetics and microstructure development was analyzed by comparison of nanostructured and conventional YSZ layers. Sintering of free-standing coatings differ significantly from that of coatings on substrates.