Thermal Spray Fabrication of Cermet-Supported Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Ni-Al₂O₃ cermet supported tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has been fabricated by thermal spraying processes to aim at reducing fabrication cost. Ni-Al₂O₃ cermet support was deposited by flame spraying and the anode, electrolyte and cathode were deposited by plasma spraying on the support tube. YSZ-Ni was used as the anode and lanthanum strontium manganate was used as the cathode. Plasma-sprayed ScSZ and YSZ deposits, after post-spray densification treatment by nitrate solution, were used as the electrolyte at thicknesses of 40 µm to 100 µm to assemble SOFC single test cell. It was found that the output power density was increased with the decrease of electrolyte thickness. The cells assembled with ScSZ exhibited a higher powder density than YSZ electrolyte. The maximum output powder density reached 0.89 W/cm² with ScSZ electrolyte of 40 µm thick at 1000°C in comparison of 0.76 W/cm² obtained with YSZ electrolyte. The results showed that the tubular SOFC fabricated fully by thermal spray processes exhibits excellent performance.