Review on fabrication techniques for porous electrodes of solid oxide fuel cells by sacrificial template methods

Abstract

Porous ceramic microstructures play an important role in enhancing the performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The development of SOFCs that can generate high power densities requires improvements in the electrodes. The engineering of the highly porous electrodes is required to maximize the number of electrochemical reaction sites and to facilitate the gas diffusion. Various sacrificial template methods are capable of generating appropriate porous microstructures and can give a strict control over the porosity amount, pore sizes, and morphology. The present review provides a broad overview on SOFCs from the perspectives of creating porous electrodes using sacrificial template methods as a state of the art strategy. In addition, the manufacturing processes for the production of SOFCs are overviewed and described with focus on the advantages and limitations of each method.