Influence of Processing Parameters on the Manufacturing of Anode-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells by Different Wet Chemical Routes

Abstract

Anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are manufactured at Forschungszentrum Jülich by different wet chemical powder processes and subsequent sintering at high temperatures. Recently, the warm pressing of Coat-Mix powders has been replaced by tape casting as the shaping technology for the NiO/8YSZ-containing substrate in order to decrease the demand for raw materials due to lower substrate thickness and in order to increase reproducibility and fabrication capacities (scalable process). Different processing routes for the substrates require the adjustment of process parameters for further coating with functional layers. Therefore, mainly thermal treatment steps have to be adapted to the properties of the new substrate types in order to obtain high-performance cells with minimum curvature (for stack assembly). In this presentation, the influence of selected process parameters during cell manufacturing will be characterized with respect to the resulting physical parameters such as slurry viscosity, green tape thickness, relative density, substrate strength, electrical conductivity, and shrinkage of the different newly developed substrate types. The influencing factors during manufacturing and the resulting characteristics will be presented and possible applications for the various substrates identified.