Fabrication and performance of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells via slurry spin coating

Ce0.8Sm0.2O1.9 (SDC) dense electrolyte thin film, La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3−δ (LSCF) porous cathode layer and Ni–SDC anode functional layer for anode-supported SOFCs are fabricated by a slurry spin coating technique. The optimum conditions for preparing the single cell with a uniform microstructure as well as excellent performance have been investigated. A dense electrolyte thin film with a crack-free microstructure can be obtained by using the SDC powders pre-calcined at 900 °C. The power density of the cells increases with the increasing weight content of corn starch (corn starch wt.%), which is mainly ascribed to the decrease of the concentration loss in the anode. However, the trade-off between the single cell performance and mechanical strength results in the optimum composition being obtained for the Ni–SDC anode containing 15 wt.% corn starch (15-Ni–SDC). In contrast to the data in the literatures, the relatively large ohmic resistance (Rohm) values in the present study are obtained for the 15-Ni–SDC cell. In order to further improve the cell performance, an anode functional layer is introduced. The power density of the resulting single cell is evidently increased, exhibiting the excellent maximum power densities of 685, 472 and 275 mW cm−2 at 600, 550 and 500 °C, respectively.