Eco-sustainable preparation of oxides and integration into renewable energy devices and sensors

The increasing consumption of fossil fuels in the world makes the emergence of the green power market necessary. Among all green technologies, fuel cells transfer chemical energy directly into electricity without combustion [1]. Fuel cells are thus not limited by the Carnot cycle efficiency and can produce electricity at very high efficiencies. They are recognized as one of the most promising environmentally-friendly technologies for producing electricity. Among fuel cell types, Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) have higher power densities and efficiency, offer fuel flexibility, modularity, and the ability of utilization for cogeneration, use less expensive catalyst material, and have much longer lifetimes [2]. During the first year of my Ph.D. I did bibliography research on the physics phenomena, fabrication process, and electrical characterization of Solid oxide fuel cells. Modeling of SOFCs enables an inexpensive method to analyze the performance of SOFCs. However, experiments are still needed to validate the numerical models. In some cases, it is difficult and expensive to set up an experiment. Therefore, an optimum balance should be maintained between the modeling and the experiment. Also due to its high working temperatures, it is not possible to obtain some parameters and dispersion of properties at a specified surface, so, commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software packages now become an important tool in investigating the fuel cell behavior under the various operating conditions, the effects of various parameters, and the performance of a particular design.