Viable image analyzing method to characterize the microstructure and the properties of the Ni/YSZ cermet anode of SOFC

The quantitative analysis of the microstructure and related physicochemical properties of the anode substrate are essential for the identification of the optimum fabrication conditions for the best performance of the SOFC unit cell. However it is not easy to characterize the correlation of the microstructure and the property of the Ni/YSZ cermet anode due to its very complicated structural features. Moreover, it is not a simple matter to differentiate all of the phases in the Ni/YSZ anode via simple microscopic observations. In this study, we developed an image analyzing method to differentiate each constituent phase of the Ni/YSZ cermet, enabling us to investigate the microstructural evolution of the Ni/YSZ anode and the characterization of the correlation between the microstructure and the properties of the Ni/YSZ anode.