This month I took part in conference "EMAS 2012 Regional Workshop" that was held in Padowa. An abstract of the poster presentation is given below:

The “Crofer 22 APU” is a trade name of the steel developed for use in high temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). It is used as an interconnector material between cells and serves as electrical current collector. Such a material has to fulfill several requirements, e.g.: low electrical resistance, stability in atmosphere of reacting gases at elevated temperature, matching of thermal expansion coefficient value to other constituents and, last but not least, low manufacturing cost. The Crofer steel meets most of these requirements, however there is still a need to improve its stability in oxidizing atmosphere.
When exposed to working conditions, a layer of chromium oxide (Cr2O3) is formed on the steel surface. Chromia has a very good electrical conductivity, comparing to Al2O3 and SiO2, but can create volatile species that lower the efficiency of some SOFC components. Manganese is added to the steel to form chromium-manganese spinel on the oxides surface preventing chromium evaporation. Oxide layers grown on the Crofer surface at 800˚C in air atmosphere during different times of exposure were chosen
for investigations. Size and shape, as well as orientation of Cr2O3 and Mn1.5Cr1.5O4 crystallites were analyzed by means of 2D and 3D EBSD. The chemical composition of oxides was investigated using EDS and WDS to analyze the changes in concentration of steel additives like La, Cu Al and Si.