Direct-write fabrication of integrated planar solid oxide fuel cells

Abstract

Integrated planar solid oxide fuel cell (IP-SOFC) with multilayered structure has been fabricated via directwriting process named robo-dispensing. Partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) substrate with sufficient mechanical strength and gas permeability was utilized as a support for SOFC. The 2-cells serially integrated planar SOFC in which each cell is composed of the line-shaped electrode and electrolyte was produced The SOFC component paste materials were dispensed through cylindrical nozzle of 0.21 mm in diameter onto a moving plate that was controlled by robo-dispensing machine. The thicknesses of anode, electrolyte and cathode were 30 μm, 15 μm and 20 μm, respectively. The fabricated IP-SOFC exhibited OCV of 1.82 V and maximum power density of 35 mW.

Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Technology—From Its Origins to Today’s State of the Art

“…The direct-writing technique was also employed to create U-shaped micro-electrodes [184], curvilinear micro-electrodes of arbitrary complex 2D geometry (average inter-electrode distance of 434 to 487 m, average electrode width of 229 to 263 m [177]) as well as cell stacks [151,203]. A drawback of the direct-writing method however is the reduced control of the electrode feature sizes resulting from spreading of the electrode inks on the electrolyte substrate when conventional electrode inks of Newtonian flow behavior are used [151,206]. Additionally, these inks lead to a lens-like cross-sectional electrode shape and a non-uniform cross-sectional thickness of the electrodes [177,206].…”

“…A drawback of the direct-writing method however is the reduced control of the electrode feature sizes resulting from spreading of the electrode inks on the electrolyte substrate when conventional electrode inks of Newtonian flow behavior are used [151,206]. Additionally, these inks lead to a lens-like cross-sectional electrode shape and a non-uniform cross-sectional thickness of the electrodes [177,206]. Viscoelastic, gel-like electrode inks have been reported to enable better shape retention of the deposited electrode structures as compared with Newtonian inks and led to improved control of the electrode dimensions [205].…”

Solid Oxide Cell Microstructural Performance in Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide Reactant Streams

“…Development of more deterministic microstructures with regularly shaped features assembled in well-defined cell architectures can garner significant improvements in electrode and cell performance [21,23,24,[32][33][34]. Fabrication of deterministic SOCs has been pursued through the application of regularly shaped particles and functionally graded structures to control microstructural features [34][35][36][37] and the application of direct write techniques to achieve tailored cell architectures [38][39][40][41][42]. The merger of these fabrication approaches with multiscale, multiphysics design and analysis may enable realization of next generation SOC technologies [21].…”

Co-planar single chamber solid oxide fuel cells with concentric electrodes

“…Despite the successful demonstrations of co-planar SC-SOFCs with various designs of electrodes or stacking of the unit cells, their fundamental operational principles such as reaction kinetics, local equilibrium of oxygen chemical potential, and reaction selectivity of the electrodes are still not clearly elucidated [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. During the last decade, there have been significant efforts to understand the influence of flow geometry on the performance of co-planar SC-SOFCs with a single pair of linear-shaped electrodes.…”