Abstract

The present study concerns the characterization and carbon tolerance behavior of novel Au - Mo - Ni/GDC cermet powders, which have the potential to be used as anodes in CH4 fuelled SOFCs. Specifically, commercially available NiO/GDC cermet anode was modified with Au and/or Mo, via the deposition-precipitation and/or deposition-coprecipitation methods, resulting in new binary and ternary composites with different structure and carbon tolerance, regarding the reaction of catalytic methane dissociation. The most interesting observations concern the reduced form of the prepared powders, where a bimetallic Ni - Au alloy was formed in the Au - modified sample and a bimetallic Ni - Mo alloy in the Mo - modified cermet. In the ternary composite materials there seems to be formed a trimetallic Ni - Au - Mo alloy which, due to a synergistic action, exhibits an enhanced carbon tolerance compared to that of Au - Ni/GDC and Mo - Ni/GDC powders.