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Effects of conducting oxide barrier layers on the stability of Crofer® 22 APU/Ca3Co4O9 interfaces

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Abstract

Practical implementation of oxide thermoelectrics on an industrial or commercial scale for waste heat energy conversion requires the development of chemically stable interfaces between metal interconnects and oxide thermoelements that exhibit low electrical contact resistances. A commercially available high-chrome iron alloy (i.e., Crofer® 22 APU) serving as the interconnect metal was spray coated with LaNi0.6Fe0.4O3 (LNFO) or (Mn,Co)3O4 spinel and then interfaced with a p-type thermoelectric material—calcium cobaltate (Ca3Co4O9)—using spark plasma sintering. The interfaces have been characterized in terms of their thermal and electronic transport properties and chemical stability. With long-term exposure of the interfaced samples to 800 °C in air, the cobalt–manganese spinel acted as a diffusion barrier between the Ca3Co4O9 and the Crofer® 22 APU alloy resulting in improved interfacial stability compared to that of samples containing LNFO as a barrier layer, and especially those without any barrier. The initial area specific interfacial resistance of the Ca3Co4O9/(Mn,Co)3O4/Crofer® 22 APU interface at 800 °C was found to be ∼1 mΩ·cm2.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank Ming Chen, Sebastian Molin, and Nikolaos Bonanos for many helpful discussions, as well as Ebtisam Abdellahi for assistance with sample preparation for SEM. The authors also thank the Programme Commission on Energy and Environment (EnMi), which is part of the Danish Council for Strategic Research (Contract No. 10-093971), for sponsoring the research of the OTE-POWER project, and the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF93) for additional funding.

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  1. Tim C. Holgate

    Present address: Teledyne Energy Systems, Inc. (TESI), Hunt Valley, MD, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark—Risø Campus, DK4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    Tim C. Holgate, Li Han, NingYu Wu, Ngo Van Nong & Nini Pryds

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  1. Tim C. Holgate
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  2. Li Han
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Correspondence to Tim C. Holgate.

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Holgate, T.C., Han, L., Wu, N. et al. Effects of conducting oxide barrier layers on the stability of Crofer® 22 APU/Ca3Co4O9 interfaces. Journal of Materials Research 29, 2891–2897 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.320

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.320

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