Fabrication and Characterization of High Performance Intermediate Temperature Micro-Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

A phase inversion-based dual-layer co-extrusion approach was advanced to fabricate micro-channel array structured micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cells (MT-SOFCs). The inner graphite layer was used as a sacrificial layer to eliminate the middle sponge-like layer and inner surface dense skin layer, which were normally formed using the single layer extrusion method. The fuel/gas permeability of such an anode substrate Ni-Ce0.8Sm0.2O1.9 (Ni-SDC) was ~9 times that of an anode substrate fabricated using the phase inversion-based single layer extrusion method. The open circuit voltages (OCVs) of the corresponding cell Ni-SDC/SDC/PrBaCo2O5+δ were 0.89V - 0.85V at 500 - 600 oC, much higher than those of other SDC electrolyte based MT-SOFCs. The peak power density of the cell was ~1484 mW cm-2 at 600 °C, approximately 1.5 times that of a similar cell with an anode substrate fabricated from the single layer extrusion method.