An Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) analysis of a reversible Solid Oxide Cell (rSOC) for its electrochemical characterisation

The Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) technique is widely used to characterise electrochemical reaction mechanisms. This technique identifies the main phenomena occurring in an electrochemical device. When dealing with Solid Oxide Electrolysers (SOECs) and Fuel Cells (SOFCs), button cells are generally used for improving their structure, choosing the right electrode materials, and testing manufacturing processes. EIS techniques are then employed to evaluate their performance under different operating conditions. However, larger industrial-sized cells are used for being operated in real test environments, meaning that a larger number of experimental tests on ever-increasing cell area are required to evaluate and assess their performance properly. In such a context, this work aims to cover this research gap by providing EIS spectra as preliminary results of an experimental campaign carried out on a 5x5 cm2 rSOC operating at different conditions in terms of temperature and gas composition. In SOEC mode, an increase in the water content at the fuel electrode leads to unstable conditions and an increase in the polarisation and ohmic resistances. In SOFC mode, a decrease in the hydrogen content at the fuel electrode leads to a maximum increase of the polarisation resistance of 34.17%, while a decrease in the oxygen content at the air electrode leads the system to highly unstable conditions. In both cases, the cell temperature variation leads to a maximum reduction in the ohmic resistance of 12 and 3.8% in SOEC and SOFC modes, respectively.