Elimination of micro-cracks in fabricating SOFC component films by plasma spray

Summary form only given, as follows. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) has been thought as one of most important energy resource of 21century for its high efficiency and low pollution. However, low-cost, rapid, and batch fabrication technology has not, been established up to now. Plasma spray, which is not limited by pattern´s size or spray material, has received much attention. In this paper, air plasma spray, which has high deposition efficiency, was used for the fabrication of SOFC component films. Electrolyte (8 mol% Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/ stabilized ZrO/sub 2/, YSZ), cathode (Sr-doped LaMnO/sub 3/, LSM) was deposited rapidly on anode-supported (Ni-YSZ), which was prepared by tape-casting process. Influence of plasma spray parameters including powder granularity, spray rate, power, and gun-to-work distance, on the crack microstructures of Solid Oxide Fuel cell component films was investigated and formative mechanism of micro-crack in the films observed by SEM was discussed. The results show that cracks began at pore and ending at another pore and their generating depend on spray powder and its size, however, is independent of spray rate and gun-to-work distance. Performance of films which be annealed was better than which not be annealed after deposited by plasma spray.