Unconventional approaches for the production of large area SOFC

Whereas significant advances have been reported in the performances of solid oxide fuel cells, some work has still to be done to reduce the costs connected to the overall processing of these systems. Tape casting and screen-printing are the most common techniques used for the fabrication of large area SOFCs. The production of the bilayer anode-electrolyte entirely by tape casting, or by tape casting coupled with screen-printing, are two of the most economical and reliable shaping alternatives. The work presents two unconventional approaches to these techniques applied to the production of anode-supported half-cell (NiO-GDC/GDC), namely the use of water-based screen printing inks and an innovative lamination process done at room temperature and low pressure. These variations of the common multilayer production scheme, potentially allow overcoming two of the drawbacks connected with them: the use of organics for the production of screen printing inks and high temperature or glues for the lamination of tapes. Both approaches allowed producing crack-free large area half cells with dense GDC electrolyte. © The Electrochemical Society.