Co-sintering of gradient anode – electrolyte structure for microtubular SOFC

The present study is devoted to the fabrication of an anode supported microtubular solid oxide fuel cell (MT-SOFC) by co-sintering of polymer-ceramic films set. The investigation of the influence of the granulometric composition of Zr0.84Y0.16O2-δ (YSZ), Ce0.73Gd0.27O2-δ (GDC) powders and NiO/YSZ, NiO/GDC composites on the kinetics of their sintering made it possible to obtain a defect-free half-cell of anode supporting layer (NiO/YSZ) - anode functional layer (NiO/GDC) – YSZ electrolyte in a single sintering act at 1200 °C. The influence of a pore former (rice starch) on the microstructure of the anode supporting layer was studied. It was shown that the addition of 5 wt% pore former results in an increase of the porosity and gas permeability of the layer by ∼1.6 and ∼4 times, respectively. Layers of the second GDC electrolyte and La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) cathode were applied sequentially by dip-coating and painting and were sintering at 1450 and 1200 °C, respectively. The maximum specific power of the obtained MT-SOFC at 850 °C was 184 mW/cm2.