Carbon deposition in porous nickel/yttria-stabilized zirconia anode under methane atmosphere

A commercial solid oxide fuel cell with a Ni/YSZ anode was characterized under a pure methane atmosphere. The amount of deposited carbon increased with an increase in temperature but decreased when the temperature exceeded 700°C. The reactivity of carbon decreased with increasing deposition temperature. Filamentous carbon was deposited from 400 to 600°C, whereas flake carbon was deposited at 700 and 800°C. With increasing temperature, the intensity ratio of the D band over the sum of the G and D bands was constant at the beginning and then decreased with the transformation of the carbon morphology. The crystallite size increased from 2.9 to 13 nm with increasing temperature. The results also indicated that the structure of the deposited carbon was better ordered with increasing deposition temperature. In comparison with pure Ni powders, the interaction between the YSZ substrate and Ni particles could not only modify the carbon deposition kinetics but also reduce the temperature effect on the structure and reactivity variation of carbon.