A New Design Using a Metal Wire Brush as the Current Collector of Micro-Tubular SOFCs

Abstract

In this study, a novel current collecting method was designed and demonstrated by inserting a metal wire brush into the anode supported micro-tubular SOFC. The new design enables a close and stable contact between the wire and the inner wall of the anode which leads to a fine performance of the SOFC. Different kinds of metal wires were applied, where the copper wire brush (CWB) shows a better performance than the stainless steel wire brush (SSWB). At a temperature of 650℃ and a fuel feed of hydrogen, the SOFC using CWB can achieve a maximum power density of 278mW/cm2 and an ohmic resistance of 0.75 Ω∙cm2, which are both better than that of SSWB (226mW/cm2 and 0.89 Ω∙cm2). While the brush size has been approved to have little effect on the ohmic resistance and the electrochemical performance. The potential of the metal wire brush as a support for internal reforming catalysts is further verified in experiments. The metal wire brushes loaded with Pt and Ni catalysts can realize effective reforming of hydrocarbon fuels, which makes the new design potential to use methane, propane, butane and other fuels for power generation. Key words: Micro-tubular SOFC; Current collecting; Metal wire brush; Internal reforming