A Review of Electrochemical Cells with Geometrically Well-defined Interfaces for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Anodes

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a high-temperature (above 750℃) energy conversion device that generates electricity with high efficiency and low CO2 emission. It is essential to develop high-activity electrodes for its commercialization by lowering the operating temperature to below 700℃. Understanding the electrode reaction kinetics can provide fundamental insights for the rational design of high-performance electrodes. However, the three-dimensional porous microstructures of the SOFC electrodes make it difficult to analyze the reaction processes precisely. To overcome this issue associated with the conventional electrodes, the model electrodes with geometrically well-defined interfaces have been widely employed. In this paper, focusing on the SOFC anodes, the fabrication techniques, cell types, analysis tools, and the modeling studies in the literature will be reviewed.