Stable electrolyte matrix for molten carbonate fuel cells

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10957918-B2
Application number	US-202016938281-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 24, 2020
Priority date	Nov 4, 2016
Publication date	Mar 23, 2021
Grant date	Mar 23, 2021

Abstract

A method of making an electrolyte matrix includes: preparing a slurry comprising a support material, a coarsening inhibitor, an electrolyte material, and a solvent; and drying the slurry to form an electrolyte matrix. The support material comprises lithium aluminate, the coarsening inhibitor comprises a material selected from the group consisting of MnO 2 , Mn 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , ZrO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 , LiFe 2 O 3 , and mixtures thereof, and the coarsening inhibitor has a particle size of about 0.005 μm to about 0.5 μm.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of making an electrolyte matrix comprising:
preparing a slurry comprising:
a support material comprising lithium aluminate,
a coarsening inhibitor comprising a material selected from the group consisting of MnO 2 , Mn 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , ZrO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 , LiFe 2 O 3 , and mixtures thereof, wherein the coarsening inhibitor has a particle size of about 0.005 μm to about 0.5 μm, and wherein the coarsening inhibitor has a BET surface area of about 10 m 2 /g to about 50 m 2 /g,
an electrolyte material,
a reinforcing material having an average particle size in a range of about 10 μm to about 120 μm, and
a solvent; and

drying the slurry to form an electrolyte matrix.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein preparing the slurry comprises an attrition milling process that reduces the size of the materials in the slurry.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising tape casting the slurry before drying the slurry.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding a binder, a plasticizer, or a combination thereof to the slurry.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the coarsening inhibitor is present in an amount of about 0.1 vol. % to about 40 vol. % of dry components of the slurry.

6. A method of making an electrolyte matrix comprising:
forming a mixture of an aluminum containing precursor, a lithium containing precursor, and a dopant precursor, wherein the dopant precursor is in oxide or salt form;
drying the mixture to form a powder;
heat treating the powder at a temperature of about 550° C. to about 800° C. for a period of about 6 hours to about 30 hours to form a lithium aluminate including a dopant, wherein the dopant comprises a material selected from the group consisting of MnO 2 , Mn 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , ZrO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 , LiFe 2 O 3 and mixtures thereof;
preparing a slurry comprising the lithium aluminate including the dopant, an electrolyte material, and a solvent; and
drying the slurry to form an electrolyte matrix.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the dopant precursor comprises MnO 2 , TiO 2 , ZrO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 , or mixtures thereof.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the aluminum precursor comprises Al 2 O 3 .

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the lithium precursor comprises lithium carbonate.

10. The method of claim 6 , further comprising tape casting the slurry before drying the slurry.

11. The method of claim 6 , further comprising adding a binder, a plasticizer, a reinforcing material, or a combination thereof to the slurry.

12. The method of claim 6 , wherein the lithium aluminate including a dopant comprises the dopant in an amount of about 0.1 mol. % to about 15 mol. %.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the coarsening inhibitor is provided as a dopant within the support material.

Assignees

• Fuelcell Energy Inc

Inventors

• Hilmi Abdelkader
• Surendranath Arun
• Yuh Chao-Yi
• Farooque Mohammad

Classifications

• Y02P70/50

  Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product · CPC title

• H01M8/0295 Primary

  Matrices for immobilising electrolyte melts · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M8/145

  comprising carbonates · CPC title

• H01M2008/147

  Fuel cells with molten carbonates · CPC title