Percolation Theory in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Composite Electrodes with a Mixed Electronic and Ionic Conductor

Percolation theory is generalized to predict the effective properties of specific solid oxide fuel cell composite electrodes, which consist of a pure ion conducting material (e.g., YSZ or GDC) and a mixed electron and ion conducting material (e.g., LSCF, LSCM or CeO2). The investigated properties include the probabilities of an LSCF particle belonging to the electron and ion conducting paths, percolated three-phase-boundary electrochemical reaction sites, which are based on different assumptions, the exposed LSCF surface electrochemical reaction sites and the revised expressions for the inter-particle ionic conductivities among LSCF and YSZ materials. The effects of the microstructure parameters, such as the volume fraction of the LSCF material, the particle size distributions of both the LSCF and YSZ materials (i.e., the mean particle radii and the non-dimensional standard deviations, which represent the particle size distributions) and the porosity are studied. Finally, all of the calculated results are presented in non-dimensional forms to provide generality for practical application. Based on these results, the relevant properties can be easily evaluated, and the microstructure parameters and intrinsic properties of each material are specified.