Development of Plasma-Sprayed Molybdenum Carbide-Based Anode Layers with Various Metal Oxides for SOFC

Air plasma-sprayed (APS) coatings provide an ability to deposit a range of novel fuel cell materials at competitive costs. This work develops three separate types of composite anodes (Mo-Mo₂C/Al₂O₃, Mo-Mo₂C/ZrO₂, Mo-Mo₂C/TiO₂) using a combination of APS process parameters on Hastelloy^®X for application in intermediate temperature proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells. Commercially available carbide of molybdenum powder catalyst (Mo-Mo₂C) and three metal oxides (Al₂O₃, ZrO₂, TiO₂) was used to prepare three separate composite feedstock powders to fabricate three different anodes. Each of the modified composition anode feedstock powders included a stoichiometric weight ratio of 0.8:0.2. The coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, nanoindentation, and conductivity. We report herein that three optimized anode layers of thicknesses between 200 and 300 µm and porosity as high as 20% for Mo-Mo₂C/Al₂O₃ (250-µm thick) and Mo-Mo₂C/TiO₂ (300 µm thick) and 17% for Mo-Mo₂C/ZrO₂ (220-µm thick), controllable by a selection of the APS process parameters with no addition of sacrificial pore-forming material. The nanohardness results indicate the upper layers of the coatings have higher values than the subsurface layers in coatings with some effect of the deposition on the substrate. Mo-Mo₂C/ZrO₂ shows high electrical conductivity.