Slip casting combined with colloidal spray coating in fabrication of tubular anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells

A simple and cost-effective slip casting technique was successfully developed to fabricate NiO–YSZ anode substrates for tubular anode-supported single SOFCs. An YSZ electrolyte film was coated on the anode substrates by colloidal spray coating technique. A single cell, NiO–YSZ/YSZ (20 μm)/LSM–YSZ, using the tubular anode supports with YSZ coating, was assembled and tested to demonstrate the feasibility of the techniques applied. Using humidified hydrogen (75 ml/min) as fuel and ambient air as oxidant, the maximum power densities of the cell were 760 mW/cm2 and 907 mW/cm2 at 800 °C and 850 °C, respectively. The observed OCV was closed to the theoretical value and the SEM results revealed that the microstructure of the anode fabricated by slip casting is porous while the electrolyte film coated by colloidal spray coating is dense.