Analysis of 3D Printed Ceramic Nanocomposite Fuel Cells

Abstract

We have reported our synthesized ceramic nanocomposite materials with remarkably high ionic conductivity (0.5 S/cm at 550oC). The fuel cells utilizing this promising ceramic nanocomposite electrolyte produced a high performance of 1.1 W/cm2 at 550oC. The performance of the cell is limited due to the thickness of the cell (600 µm) and especially the electrolyte layer (300 µm). We envision that our fuel cells utilizing promising nanocomposite materials can reach performances >2 W/cm2 at 550oC if their thickness can be reduced to less than 200 µm. Unfortunately, with the conventional pressing method used for our cells manufacturing, the thickness of the cells cannot be reduced precisely. Moreover, this fabrication method is not suitable for large-scale upscaling of the technology. The printing methods, especially digital printing techniques including 3D and inkjet printing, enable the fabrication of thin ceramic fuel cell with better controllability. In our preliminary experiments, we successfully printed our high-performance nanocomposite electrolyte with a 3D printer. The printed electrolyte shows an excellent performance of 0.32 ± 0.04 S/cm at 550oC. The key challenges related to the 3D printing of ceramic fuel cell is highlighted in the work. Furthermore, in addition to our research on conventional 3-layer cell structure, our research on novel 3D printed single-layer cells will be presented. Acknowledgement: This work is supported by Academy of Finland (Grant No. 13329016). Dr. Asghar thanks Academy of Finland (Grant No. 13322738) and the Hubei overseas Talent 100 program for their support.