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Volume 08
Innovative Energy & Research
ISSN: 2576-1463
Advanced Energy Materials 2019
July 11-12, 2019
July 11-12, 2019 | Zurich, Switzerland
21
st
International Conference on
Advanced Energy Materials and Research
The ZnO based nanostructured anode materials for energy conversion applications @ LTSOFC
Ghazanfar Abbas
Comsats University Islamabad, Pakistan
Introduction:
Solid oxide fuel cells have got a countless consideration for the researchers in the field of energy
conversion technologies due to their fuel flexibility and higher efficiency. Nanostructured materials have produced
and great interest of researchers due to their vast applications in the field of chemistry, biotechnology, physics, medical
science and material engineering etc. Now-a-day, the scientists attract their attention toward the nanomaterials for
their use in energy conversion devices to overcome the energy crisis. Fuel cell is one of them which can fulfil energy
demands. In a fuel cell device the chemical energy of fuel was converted into the electrical energy. It was composed
of three components anode, electrolyte and a cathode. Among all other categories of fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells
(SOFC) were preferably used due to its reliability, flexibility of fuel, good efficiency, modularity, low emissions and
environment friendliness.
Experimental:
In the present research investigation, two types of ZnO based anode materials with compositions
Al0.1Mn0.1Zn0.8O (AMZ) and Al0.1Mn0.1Ni0.1Zn0.7O (AMNZ) were synthesized by solid state reaction. The
phase confirmation and surface morphology of the synthesized materials were confirmed by the X-ray diffraction
and scanning electron microscopic analysis, respectively. Electrical properties of the materials were also measured
for energy applications.
Results and Discussion:
The Scherer’s formula was applied to elucidate the particle sizes of proposed materials
and found to be 52 and 61 nm for AMZ and AMNZ, respectively. The maximum conductivity of AMZ and AMNZ
was found to be 4.4 and 5.2 S/cm, respectively. The values of activation energy calculated by Arrhenius plot were
0.21 and 0.25ev for AMZ and AMNZ, respectively. The fabricated materials showed both ionic and electronic
conducting behaviour as confirmed by electrochemical impedance measurements. The AMNZ composition has
higher value of open circuit voltage (1.01V) and power density (535 mW/cm
2
) in hydrogen atmosphere as compared
to AMZ at 550°C indicating that the AMNZ can be used as promising anode material at low temperature for fuel cell
applications. The results of measurements have been shown in figure 1
Conclusions:
All these characterization results show that material is suitable for anode candidates in LT-SOFC and
can be considered the new potential candidate as conventional one.
mian_ghazanfar@hotmail.comInnov Ener Res 2019, Volume 08