Development of a planar SOFC device using screen-printing technology

The aim of this study is to investigate the potentialities of screen-printing technology to manufacture planar SOFC device. Widely studied materials were chosen for this work, particularly YSZ as electrolyte, LSM as cathode and Ni-YSZ cermet for the anode. This technique was firstly used to elaborate the porous electrodes and the collectors constituted by a gold grid. These layers were deposited onto sintered YSZ pellets and two types of fuel cells were produced: conventional two-chambers devices where anode and cathode atmospheres are separate and single-chamber fuel cells (SCFC) where the electrodes are deposited on the same electrolyte side and are in contact with a common surrounding atmosphere. Two test benches were developed to study the cells’ performances in separate hydrogen/oxygen atmospheres for conventional device or in a unique methane/oxygen mixture for single-chamber device. At this point of the study, performances are not optimized and weak power density is available, around 1.2 mW/cm2 for SCFC at 800 °C with a ratio of methane to oxygen equal to 1.5. Performances of two-chambers devices are also weak due to the electrolyte thickness around 1 mm and the low experimental temperature, 500 °C. However, the results confirm the feasibility of SCFC and developed test benches constitute a tool for further investigations of modified devices, especially with YSZ electrolyte thick film supported on interconnect materials as no tightness is required for SCFC, or with multi-layered electrodes.