Pulsed laser deposition of Y-doped BaZrO3 thin film as electrolyte for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells

In this paper, we investigate the electrochemical behaviours of solid oxide fuel cells employing Y-doped BaZrO3 (BYZ) thin films as electrolyte. Nano-porous substrate supported thin film solid oxide fuel cells were fabricated with BYZ electrolyte of various thicknesses deposited by pulsed laser deposition. Higher open circuit voltage (OCV) was achieved from the fuel cell with thicker electrolyte which can block more pinholes propagated from the porous substrate. At 450 °C, the OCV and maximum power density of the cell with 1.34 μm-thick BYZ electrolyte was about 1.1 V and 21 mW/cm2, respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was carried out to reveal phenomena inside the fuel cell.