Investigation of performance of non-metallic fiber reinforced glass-ceramic sealants for solid oxide fuel cells

In solid oxide fuel cells, the sealing element is critical to prevent leakage or direct mixing of fuel and oxidant and to maintain the cell performance. The high-temperature operating conditions of solid oxide fuel cells bring about the problem of selecting suitable sealing materials. In this thesis, glass-ceramic based sealing element, which is widely used in solid oxide fuel cells, is successfully fabricated and the use of non-metallic fiber-reinforced glass-ceramic element is tested to improve the sealing performance. Fiber/glass-ceramic composites reinforced with basalt fiber, kevlar fiber, glass fiber and carbon fiber as a sealant are experimentally investigated. Each case is also subjected to thermal cycles. Based on bonding strength, microstructure and XRD analyses, it is found that the carbon fiber-reinforced glass-ceramic seal offers 45% performance improvement over the pristine glass-ceramic sealant.