Stability of materials as candidates for sulfur-resistant anodes of solid oxide fuel cells

Development of sulfur-resistant anode materials for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is critical to cost reduction of SOFC technologies. In this paper, we report the thermodynamic stability of various candidate materials for sulfur-resistant anodes of SOFCs, including metal carbides, borides, nitrides, silicides, perovskite-structured oxides, and transition metal sulfides. The most probable reaction between each candidate material and hydrogen sulfide (H2S)-containing fuels under SOFC operating conditions (i.e., high temperature, reducing atmosphere with significant concentration of water vapor) were predicted and compared with experimental observations. It was found that proper thermodynamic analysis provided accurate prediction of the stability for a wide range of materials and significantly reduced the number of candidate materials for further in-depth study. (c) 2006 The Electrochemical Society.