Thin-film solid oxide fuel cell with high performance at low-temperature

A planar thin-film solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Materials Science Division. The thin-film SOFC is fabricated with an inexpensive and scalable technique involving colloidal deposition of YSZ on porous NiO–YSZ substrates, yielding SOFCs capable of high power density at an operating temperature of 800°C. The thickness of the YSZ film deposited onto the porous substrates is approximately 10 μm after sintering. Ni–YSZ/YSZ/LSM cells built with this technique have exhibited theoretical open circuit voltages (OCVs), high diffusion limited current densities and high power density. The cells have been tested for long periods of time (over 700 h) and have been thermally cycled from 600–800°C while demonstrating excellent stability over time.