A simple and cost-effective method has been developed for the fabrication of microtubular solid oxide fuel cells (MT-SOFCs). Highly asymmetric electrolyte hollow fibers composed of a thin dense skin layer and a thick porous substrate are first prepared by a modified phase inversion/sintering technique. The porous substrate is then formed into the anode by deposition of a Ni catalyst via an electroless plating method inside the pores while the thin dense skin layer serves directly as the electrolyte film of the fuel cells. A porous cathode layer is produced on the outer surface of the Ni-deposited hollow fibers by slurry coating and subsequent sintering to form a complete micro tubular fuel cell. The process has been employed to fabricate yttrium stabilized zirconia (YSZ) supported Ni-YSZ-YSZ-La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-(LSCF) microtubular fuel cells. The maximum output of the resulting cells is 159.6 mW cm-2 at 800 °C when using H2 as the fuel feed and air as the oxidant.
Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) micro tubular electrolyte membranes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) were prepared via the combined wet phase inversion and sintering technique. The as-derived YSZ mi- cro tubes consist of a thin dense skin layer and a thick porous layer that can serve as the electrode of fuel cells. The dense and the porous electrolyte layers have the thickness of 3-5 μm and 70-90 μm, respectively, while the inner surface porosity of the porous layer is higher than 28.1%. The two layers are perfectly integrated together to preclude the crack or flake of electrolyte film from the electrode. The presented method possesses distinct advantages such as technological simplicity, low cost and high reliability, and thus provides a new route for the preparation of micro tubular SOFCs.
TAN XiaoYaoYIN WeiNingMENG BoMENG XiuXiaYANG NaiTaoMA ZiFeng
