Development of Fuel Electrode Supported Solid Oxide Cell with Ni/CGO Active Layer

Abstract

A half-cell comprising of a Ni/3YSZ support, a Ni/CGO10 active fuel electrode, a thin ScYSZ electrolyte and a CGO10 barrier layer was realized through tape casting, lamination and co-sintering. After screen printing of air electrode and contact layer, the cell was electrochemically tested using EIS at open circuit voltage. At 750°C in 50/50 H2O/H2 ohmic resistance (Rs) was encouraging at 0.18 Ω.cm2. Polarization resistance (Rp) was however significantly larger than state of the art (SoA) cells at 0.45 Ω.cm2. From electrochemical analysis the causes for the large Rp are hypothesized to be poor air electrode performance and low fuel electrode performance. This transaction paper includes a description of ongoing activities to improve the electrochemical performance of this cell concept to approach or surpass SoA fuel electrode supported solid oxide cells (FE-SOC) relying on Ni/YSZ electrodes.