Effect of CeO₂@Ni on the Oxidation Resistance of in Situ TiC/Ni Composite Applied for Intermediate Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Interconnects

The TiC/Ni composites with different CeO 2 or CeO 2 @Ni content are fabricated by pressureless reactive sintering, and the CeO 2 @Ni particles are prepared by electroless plating technique. The results show that the continuous Ni layer is prepared on CeO 2 particles, leading to the decrease of contact angle between CeO 2 and Ni from about 116° to 65°. The relative density of composites with 1 wt% CeO 2 increases from 85.79% to 96.45% by Ni layer on CeO 2 particles. The CeO 2 or CeO 2 @Ni particles exhibit no obvious influence on the microstructure of composites, and Ce atoms of CeO 2 diffuse into TiC particles during the reactive sintering process. The mass gain of composite decreases from 7.4709 to 4.9075 mg cm −2 by addition of 1 wt% CeO 2 @Ni. The Ce‐doped in NiO and TiO 2 would restrict the inward diffusion of O atoms and outward diffusion of Ni atoms, resulting in the improvement of oxidation resistance of composite. With the increase of CeO 2 @Ni content from 0 to 1 wt%, the surface specific resistance of composite decreases from 3.16 to 0.56 Ω cm 2 at 800 °C due to the thinner oxide scale and lower bandgap of TiO 2 by Ce doping.