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 tight 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 (CZWB) shows a better performance than the stainless steel wire brush (SSWB). At a temperature of 700℃ and a fuel feed of hydrogen, the SOFC using CZWB can achieve a maximum power density of 290 mW/cm2 and an ohmic resistance of 0.66 Ω∙cm2. And the brush size has been approved to have little effect on the ohmic resistance. A 108 h long-time discharge test was carried on, resulting with a degradation rate of 1.728‰/h and indicating a relative stability.