Microstructural Changes of Ni/YSZ Cermet under Repeated Redox Reaction in Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM)

摘要

Ni/8YSZ pellet was exposed to the high temperature (1073 K) redox cycle repeatedly and the microstructural changes were observed with environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). It was revealed that the conditions for observing with ESEM, low gas pressure and electron beam, do not affect the mechanism of microstructural changes; therefore it can be said that the observation of microstructural changes under the pseudo SOFC operating condition with ESEM is reliable. However the remarkable agglomeration of Ni particles was observed only on the surface, not inside the sample.