Performance evaluation of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells with thin film YSZ electrolyte

This paper presents the work on the development of an anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The cell consists of a Ni-YSZ anode as the cell support, a 45-μm thick YSZ electrolyte and a screen-printed LSM–YSZ/LSM double-layer cathode. Effect of cell activation and operating conditions such as temperature and airflow rate on the cell performance was investigated. We found that for a newly prepared cell, there was effective activation on electrodes by current treatment, and the improved performance of the cell was actually a consequence of cathode activation. The maximum power density at 800°C of this cell with an active area of 0.5 cm2 is 0.93 W/cm2 with 500 ml/min of airflow rate. The study also revealed that obtaining cell impedance data under loading provides an alternative way to assess the performance of the SOFC.