Predictive Microkinetic Model for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Patterned Anode: Based on an Extensive Literature Survey and Exhaustive Simulations

A one-dimensional microkinetic model combining H and O migration mechanisms is used to simulate the surface diffusion, chemical and charge-transfer reactions near the triple phase boundary of the Ni/YSZ patterned anode. A number of parameter sets are exhaustively examined in the microkinetic schemes to obtain a proper set for the explanation of experimental observations. We find a set of parameters free from unphysical fitting parameters, and can explain a large activity gap of patterned anodes reported in literature. From our simulation, we found that the lower activity patterned anode is kinetically governed by both H and O migration across the triple phase boundary, while the higher activity patterned anodes are governed by the O migration.