Properties and Performance of Electrolyte Supported SOFCs with EB-PVD Gd-Doped Ceria Thin-Films

Abstract

In this work, dense gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC) thin-films with thickness of 0.15 and 0.5 µm were fabricated on 90 µm thick 3YSZ electrolytes by electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD), and integrated into electrolyte supported solid oxide cells (ESC) as Sr-barrier layer. Operated at 860°C, the ESC with 0.5 µm GDC thin-film outperformed the cells with 0.15 µm GDC layers and delivered a power density of 0.54 W•cm-2 at a cell voltage of 0.7 V. Post mortem investigations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) confirmed that 0.5 µm thick GDC thin-films were effective to suppress the formation of the strontium zirconate phase at the YSZ/GDC interface.