Single chamber solid oxide fuel cells with integrated current-collectors

Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Technology—From Its Origins to Today’s State of the Art

“…Buergler et al also confirmed the work of Hibino et al by reproducing the high OCVs and power densities [99][100][101]. An electrolyte-supported SC-SOFC with Ni-CGO anode and SSC cathode on a CGO electrolyte delivered an OCV of 0.68 V and a peak power density of 468 mW·cm −2 at 600 °C.…”

“…Additionally, the catalytic activity of platinum towards the fuel-air mixture was found to enhance the catalytic activity of the anode material [4] and boost the performance of the cell [98]. In order to avoid direct contact between the reaction gases and Pt current collectors, the use of integrated platinum current collectors, embedded inside each electrode layer, was therefore proposed [99][100][101]. However, as the reaction gases pass through the porous electrodes to the interface with the electrolyte, interaction of Pt with the fuel-air mixture can still be possible within the electrodes and the effect of the catalytic activity of Pt cannot necessarily be impeded.…”

“…Similarly, Pd-Ni-SDC composite anodes for intermediate operating temperatures were studied in [81,121]. Doping Ni-CGO anodes with small amounts of Pd was also found to be beneficial especially at low air flows (elevated R mix ) [99][100][101], whereas the addition of a small amount of Ru to porous NiO films on GDC electrolyte substrates significantly impeded the reoxidation of the nickel anode in a methane-air gas mixture [122]. In [82], ceria was added to a Ni-YSZ anode in order to increase the catalytic activity of the electrode for the partial oxidation of methane at temperatures below 750 °C.…”

“…The effect of anode thickness, gas flow rate [139] and operating temperature [99][100][101] on cell performance was investigated by Buergler et al Ni-CGO anodes with a thickness of 60 m delivered the highest OCV and power output in methane-air mixtures whereas very thin anodes (9 m) led to unstable cell performance [139]. Oscillations of the OCV were attributed to oxidation-reduction cycles of the Ni-cermet and accompanying temperature fluctuations.…”

“…At flow rates below 70 mL·min , the amount of gas reaching the electrode/electrolyte interface was too little to establish the required oxygen partial pressure and to promote sufficient reaction rates. The effect of temperature on the OCV was observed by monitoring the OCV during heating and cooling [99][100][101]. As the furnace temperature exceeded 500 °C, the OCV abruptly increased from 0.1 V to 0.96 V due to the reduction of NiO to Ni and the accompanying heat release.…”