Towards Robust and Flexible Electrochemical Devices Using Proton Conducting Ceramics

Kurzfassung

The high potential of Proton Conducting Ceramics (PCC) in fuel cell, steam electrolysis, and many other electrochemical applications has been demonstrated to achieve promising performances in the last decade. In the ceramic electrode supported cells, the refractory nature of state-of-the-art PCC electrolyte, e.g. trivalent cation doped BaZrO3-BaCeO3 perovskites, requires high sintering temperature that limits scalability and cost reduction for practical applications. Here we propose an alternative architecture based on planer porous Metal Supports (MS). MS architecture is advantageous over ceramic supported cells, in terms of high tolerance towards thermal/redox cycling that are key features for flexible and reliable operation in high temperature fuel cell and electrolysis applications, for example. The key challenge in the development of MS-PCC is to find a feasible process to fabricate gas-tight electrolyte on the porous metal support without degrading the metal. Our strategy is implementing multilayers combining wet chemical processes below 1000°C for the functional electrode and dry Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) techniques below 800 °C for the gas-tight electrolyte coating. PCC in MS architecture provides potentially high performances, mechanical stability and flexibility for wide range of electrochemical applications. Our recent work in the development of MS-PCC half cells will be presented and prospects and challenges will be discussed.