Anode substrate with continuous porosity gradient for tubular solid oxide fuel cells

Tubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are fabricated using a modified phase inversion process to obtain anode structure with graded pore distribution. The novel structure is achieved using an additional graphite layer to control the phase separation reaction in the ceramic layer and to remove the skin layer, which always presents in phase inversion process. The graded anode can effectively eliminate the concentration polarization loss at high current density as observed for the anode with the skin layer. In addition, improved peak power density is obtained with the graded-anode based cell, demonstrating that the modified process is promise in fabricating tubular SOFCs. Keywords: Tubular fuel cell, Graded anode, Phase inversion, Skin layer, Concentration polarization