L. Rose, National Research Council, Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Z. Tang, A. Burgess, Northwest Mettech Corp., North Vancouver, BC, Canada; O. Kesler, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Yttria stabilised zirconia (YSZ) is the most commonly used electrolyte material for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), due to its pure ionic conductivity and chemical stability. Standard electrolyte fabrication techniques for planar fuel cells involve wet ceramic techniques such as tape-casting or screen printing, which require sintering at temperatures above 1300ºC. Plasma Spraying (PS) may provide a more rapid and cost efficient method of producing SOFCs without requiring high temperature post-deposition heat treatments. However, it is difficult to produce plasma sprayed layers that are both thin (<20μm) and completely dense. It is of utmost importance to have a dense electrolyte to prevent the mixing of cathode and anode reactant gases. This study investigates the use of spin coated sol gel derived YSZ precursor solutions to fill the pores present in plasma sprayed YSZ layers.
The work presented includes production of NiO/YSZ anode substrates by wet ceramic processing and the subsequent production of plasma sprayed YSZ layers as electrolytes of the solid oxide fuel cell on top of the anode. The porosity of the plasma sprayed coatings is reduced by infiltration with sol gel solutions.
