Nickel coarsening is considered a significant cause of solid oxide cell (SOC) performance degradation. Therefore, understanding the morphological changes in the nickel-yttria stabilized zirconia (Ni-YSZ) fuel electrode is crucial for the wide spread usage of SOC technology. This paper reports a study of the initial 3D microstructure evolution of a SOC analyzed in the pristine state and after 3 and 8 h of annealing at 850 °C, in dry hydrogen. The analysis of the evolution of the same location of the electrode shows a substantial change of the nickel and pore network during the first 3 h of treatment, while only negligible changes are observed after 8 h. The nickel coarsening results in loss of connectivity in the nickel network, reduced nickel specific surface area and decreased total triple phase boundary density. For the condition of this experiment, nickel coarsening is shown to be predominantly curvature driven, and changes in the electrode microstructure parameters are discussed in terms of local microstructural evolution.

镍粗化被认为是导致固体氧化物电池（SOC）性能下降的重要原因。因此，了解镍-钇稳定氧化锆（Ni-YSZ）燃料电极的形态变化对于SOC技术的广泛应用至关重要。本文报道了在干燥氢气中，在原始状态下以及在850°C退火3和8 h后分析的SOC的初始3D微结构演变的研究。电极相同位置的演变分析表明，在处理的前3小时内，镍和孔网络发生了实质性变化，而在8小时后仅观察到微不足道的变化。镍的粗化会导致镍网络中的连通性下降，镍比表面积降低以及总三相边界密度降低。