New Method for the Deposition of Nickel Oxide in Porous Scaffolds for Electrodes in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells and Electrolyzers.

A simple chemical bath deposition is used to coat a complex porous ceramic scaffold with a conformal Ni layer. The resulting composite is used as a solid oxide fuel cell electrode, and its electrochemical response is measured in humidified hydrogen. X-ray tomography is used to determine the microstructural characteristics of the uncoated and Ni-coated porous structure, which include the surface area to total volume, the radial pore size, and the size of the necks between the pores.