High performance of protonic ceramic fuel cells with 1-μm-thick electrolytes fabricated by inkjet printing

Abstract

Protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) have attracted considerable research attention owing to their high ionic conductivity and low activation energy that enables their operation at intermediate temperatures (≤600 °C). However, a lack of appropriate manufacturing technologies has limited the expected progress of their commercialization. Inkjet printing, an additive manufacturing technology that produces high-quality thin-film layers under non-vacuum conditions, may be instrumental in the practical fabrication of thin-film PCFCs. In this study, a PCFC based on an inkjet-printed BaZr0.2Ce0.6YZ0.1Yb0.1O3–δ electrolyte layer was successfully fabricated and optimized. First, a printable ink with fluid properties suitable for inkjet printing was synthesized. The synthesized ink was used to fabricate an optimized 1.2-μm-thick electrolyte layer in a PCFC employing a drop-on-demand approach. The inkjet-printed electrolyte PCFC achieved an impressive performance of 577 mW cm–2 and exhibited an area-specific ohmic resistance of 0.072 Ω cm2 at 500 °C, which is the lowest value ever reported for a PCFC. A low degradation rate of 0.0004 V h–1 was determined by durability experiments, indicating that inkjet printing technology can possibly contribute to the commercialization of high-performance PCFCs.