Fabrication and characterisation of a large-area solid oxide fuel cell based on dual tape cast YSZ electrode skeleton supported YSZ electrolytes with vanadate and ferrite perovskite-impregnated anodes and cathodes

Abstract

Infiltration of ceramic materials into a pre-formed ceramic scaffold is an effective way of fabricating a solid oxide fuel cell with nano-structured ceramic electrodes by avoiding detrimental interfacial reactions through low-temperature processing for achieving high performance using hydrogen as well as a carbonaceous fuel. However, there are significant concerns about the applicability of this method because of the difficulty in fabricating a large-area gas-tight but thin electrolyte between two highly porous ceramic and the multiple repetitions of infiltration process. Here, a large-area (5 cm by 5 cm) scaffold with a thin yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte sandwiched between two identical porous structures is prepared by tape casting and co-firing, and then solution precursors are impregnated into the porous scaffolds to prepare nano-structured La_0.8Sr_0.2FeO₃ (LSF) and La_0.7Sr_0.3VO_3−δ (LSV_red). The thus prepared solid oxide fuel cell with 10 wt% ceria + 1 wt% Pd as a catalyst in anodes shows a peak power of 489 mW cm⁻² (∼6 W per cell) at 800 °C using H₂ as a fuel and air as an oxidant. This large-area fuel cell retained the integrity of the thin electrolyte and high performance after the reducing-oxidation cycle at 900 °C, showing superiority over the conventional Ni(O)-YSZ based support.