Fabrication of anode-supported microtubular solid oxide fuel cells by sequential dip-coating and reduced sintering steps

Abstract

The expensive and time-consuming fabrication of microtubular solid oxide fuel cells (MT-SOFCs) is one of the main barriers for their commercialization. In this study, a sequential dip-coating coupled with co-firing process was developed to fabricate anode-supported MT-SOFCs using carbon rods as a sacrificial template. Both anode and electrolyte layers underwent co-firing at 1400 °C rather than conventional pre-sintering and co-sintering steps. The whole cell structure was fabricated through sequential dip-coating and drying cycles that are flexible to various tube sizes and fast in turnaround time. The fabricated MT-SOFCs were comprised of Ni–yttria-stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) anode support, scandia-stabilized zirconia (ScSZ) electrolyte, Ni-ScSZ anode functional layer, strontium-doped lanthanum manganite (LSM)–ScSZ cathode functional layer, and LSM cathode current collector layer, respectively. The electrochemical performance of the fuel cell was measured at temperatures between 650 and 800 °C. The MT-SOFC delivered stable performance for more than 50 h operation at 700 °C. The fabricated fuel cell also exhibited excellent thermal cycling stability. The results demonstrated that the sequential dip-coating coupled with co-firing is a simple, flexible and cost-effective fabrication process to produce reliable and robust MT-SOFCs.