Effect of surface condition on spallation behavior of oxide scale on SS 441 substrate used in SOFC

As operating temperature of SOFC decreases, ferritic stainless steel has attracted a great deal of attention for its use as an interconnect in SOFCs because of its gas-tightness, low electrical resistivity, ease of fabrication, and cost-effectiveness. However, oxidation reaction of the metallic interconnects in a typical SOFC working environment is unavoidable. The growth stresses in the oxide scale and on the scale/substrate interface combined with the thermal stresses induced by thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between the oxide scale and the substrate may lead to scale delamination/buckling and eventual spallation during stack cooling, which can lead to serious cell performance degradation. Therefore, the interfacial adhesion strength between the oxide scale and substrate is crucial to the reliability and durability of the metallic interconnect in SOFC operating environments. In this paper, we investigated the effect of the surface conditions on the interfacial strength of oxide scale and SS441 substrate experimentally. Contrary to the conventional sense, it was found that rough surface of SS441 substrate will decrease the interfacial adhesive strength of the oxide scale and SS441 substrate.