A detailed processing route and electrochemical validation of fuel-electrode supported planar solid oxide cells toward scalable manufacturing

Abstract

Planar fuel electrode supported 5 cm × 5 cm solid oxide cells (SOCs) were manufactured by conventional methods such as tape-casting, lamination and screen printing. The chosen materials were a Ni–8% mol Y 2 O 3 -stabilized ZrO 2 (Ni-YSZ) cermet as fuel electrode, YSZ as electrolyte and lanthanum strontium manganite (LSM)-YSZ or lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite (LSCF)-gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC) composites as air electrode, including in this later case a GDC barrier layer. Electrochemical characterization and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis validated the proposed manufacturing methods and allowed a comparison of SOCs performances at several gas concentrations and temperatures. As a reference, EIS measurements at 750 °C with 100% O 2 and 50% H 2 O resulted in polarization resistances of 0.24 Ω cm 2 for the LSCF-GDC cell and 0.60 Ω cm 2 for the LSM-YSZ cell, while the achieved current densities at 1.3 V were 0.56 and 0.40 A/cm 2 , respectively.