PhD position - Robustness and performances of improved electrodes for solid oxide cells application

OPPORTUNITY DETAILS

Total reward

0 $

State University

CEA Tech

Area

Western Europe

Host Country

France

Deadline

31 Oct 2021

Study level

Doctoral Degree

Opportunity type

PhD

Specialities

Engineering

Opportunity funding

Not funding

Eligible Countries

This opportunity is destined for all countries

Eligible Region

All Regions

SL-DRT-21-0289

RESEARCH FIELD

Advanced hydrogen and fuel-cells solutions for energy transition

ABSTRACT

Solid oxide cells (SOCs) are electrochemical devices operating at high temperature that can directly convert fuel into electricity (fuel cell mode – SOFC) or electricity into fuel (electrolysis mode – SOEC). In recent years, the interest on SOCs has grown significantly thanks to their wide range of technological applications that could offer innovative solutions for the transition toward a renewable energy market. However, despite of all their advantages, the SOCs lifetime is still insufficient to envisage the industrial deployment of this technology. Indeed, the SOCs durability remains limited by various degradation phenomena including a mechanical damage in the electrodes. For instance, the formation of micro-cracks in the so-called ‘hydrogen’ electrode is a major source of degradation. However, the precise mechanism and the full impact of the micro-cracks on the electrode performances are still unknown. By a multi-physic modelling approach, it is proposed in this thesis to establish the link between the loss of performances and the mechanical damage in the hydrogen electrode. Once the model validated on dedicated experiments, a sensitivity analysis will be conducted to provide relevant guidelines for the manufacturing of improved robust and performant electrodes. One or two solutions will be selected and evaluated after manufacturing for final validation.