Characterization and Performance of Ni-YSZ Cermet Supported SOFC by Electrostatic Slurry Spray Deposition

Abstract

Since the SOFCs are placed to operate near 1000 oC, the chemical instability and mechanical discordance have been made to occur between dissimilar or similar materials of the solid oxide fuel cell system. Furthermore, the use of expensive cell structural components and cell housing results the increase of stack fabrication cost, which makes the status of SOFC rather less economical in commercialization. In order to reduce the operation temperature, two approaches are widely applied to lower the resistance of dense electrolyte membranes, either by decreasing the traditional YSZ (8 mol% Y2O3-ZrO2) electrolyte thickness or using alternative materials. For the purpose of decreasing the electrolyte thickness to reduce operating temperature, various thin film methods have been reported. In this paper, electrostatic slurry spray deposition was applied to prepare YSZ film (~5μm) and LSM cathode (~ 20 μm) on Ni-YSZ for SOFCs. The characteristics and performances of single cells were investigated from 650 to 850 oC.