NI/NI‐YSZ Current Collector/Anode Dual Layer Hollow Fibers for Micro‐Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Abstract

A co‐extrusion technique was employed to fabricate a novel dual layer NiO/NiO‐YSZ hollow fiber (HF) precursor which was then co‐sintered at 1,400 °C and reduced at 700 °C to form, respectively, a meshed porous inner Ni current collector and outer Ni‐YSZ anode layers for SOFC applications. The inner thin and highly porous “mesh‐like” pure Ni layer of approximately 50 μm in thickness functions as a current collector in micro‐tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), aiming at highly efficient current collection with low fuel diffusion resistance, while the thicker outer Ni‐YSZ layer of 260 μm acts as an anode, providing also major mechanical strength to the dual‐layer HF. Achieved morphology consisted of short finger‐like voids originating from the inner lumen of the HF, and a sponge‐like structure filling most of the Ni‐YSZ anode layer, which is considered to be suitable macrostructure for anode SOFC system. The electrical conductivity of the meshed porous inner Ni layer is measured to be 77.5 × 105 S m–1. This result is significantly higher than previous reported results on single layer Ni‐YSZ HFs, which performs not only as a catalyst for the oxidation reaction, but also as a current collector. These results highlight the advantages of this novel dual‐layer HF design as a new and highly efficient way of collecting current from the lumen of micro‐tubular SOFC.

Recent fabrication techniques for micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cell support: A review

“…Besides the co-extrusion of CGO/Ni-CGO dual-layer hollow fiber, Kanawka et al 72 reported the fabrication of dual layer Ni/Ni-YSZ hollow fiber, composed of a thin and continuous meshed current collector layer made from nickel, adhering to the outer thick Ni-YSZ anode layer. The inner, meshed Ni layer was designed to perform the current collector role without limiting the gas permeation.…”

Numerical study of magnetohydrodynamic natural convection in a non-Darcian porous enclosure filled with electrically conducting helium gas

“…recently by Kanawkal and Othman [31] and much earlier by Guidotti [32]. The accurate performance of hydromagnetic fuel cells requires comprehensive laboratory testing and also numerical simulations of nonlinear viscous electrically conducting flows in enclosures and other geometries.…”

Fabrication Methods and Performance in Fuel Cell and Steam Electrolysis Operation Modes of Small Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: A Review

“…Efforts are being made to overcome the difficulties found for mT-SOFC use Kanawka et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2011;de la Torre et al, 2013) and interest in mT-SOFCs has risen over recent years, as indicated by the increase of scientific contributions in this area. However, there are only a few review papers devoted to mT-SOFCs.…”