Preparation and characterization of metal supported solid oxide fuel cells with screen-printed electrodes and thin-film electrolyte

Abstract

In this work, metal supported solid oxide fuel cells (MS-SOFCs) with screen-printed electrodes and thin-film electrolytes were manufactured and investigated. Lanthanum strontium titanate based composite anode functional layers (AFL) were applied on metal substrates through screen printing technology. The AFL served not only as the electrochemically active reaction site on the fuel side, but also provided macroporous microstructure and smooth surface for supporting the successive fine coatings with YSZ nanoparticles. On top of the AFL, a 3 µm thick multi-layered electrolyte was deposited in the form of a combination of a dip-coated yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) layer and physical vapor deposited (PVD) YSZ-gadolinia doped ceria (GDC) double layers. The MS-SOFC half cells demonstrated good gas-tightness with leakage rate value down to 0.5 Pa·m·s-1. To build full cells, perovskite LSCF cathode layers with an active area of 4x4 cm² were screen printed on half cells with a size of 5x5 cm². At a cell voltage of 0.7 V, the achieved power density values at 750 °C and 800 °C were 300 mW/cm2 and 520 mW/cm2, respectively. The redox cycle tolerance investigation on the cells also showed promising results.