Self-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells by Multimaterial 3D Printing

Abstract

Recently, it has been demonstrated that the application of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for functional ceramics fabrication, especially to SOC production, leads to significant improvement of the process. AM represents freedom of design that allows to enhance the performance of the SOC-based device and to increase manufacturing productiveness, while the waste material is reduced. As a result, a one-step printed monolithic SOFC stack could be produced combining different AM technologies in a single printing process. For this purpose, hybrid 3D printing technology which combines stereolithography and robocasting has been developed. Thus, the technique uses 8YSZ for the electrolyte fabrication by stereolithography and deposition of electrodes and interconnectors by robocasting. The elaborated hybrid multimaterial 3D printing technology renders possible complete SOC stack fabrication as a single-step process. Complete fully printed SOFC cells, their co-sintering process, and their characterization are here presented and discussed.