Reduction kinetics of NiO–YSZ composite for application in solid oxide fuel cell

A porous nickel–8 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia (Ni–8YSZ) composite, used as anode for solid oxide fuel cell, was obtained by reduction of NiO–8YSZ cermet. The first goal was the evaluation of the temperature effect of powder processing by thermogravimetry. In addition, the influence of porosity in the reduction kinetic of the sample sintered at 1450 °C was evaluated. The final porosity produced in NiO–8YSZ composite by pore former was 30.4 and 37.9 vol.%, respectively, for 10 and 15 mass% of corn starch. The sample with 15 mass% of corn starch promotes a reduction rate almost twice higher than sample with 10 mass% of corn starch. The porosity introduced by the reduction of NiO was 23 vol.%.