Effect of thickness of Gd0.1Ce0.9O1.95 electrolyte films on electrical performance of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells

In the present paper, we investigated the electrical performance of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) composed of Gd0.1Ce0.9O1.95 (GDC) electrolyte films of 1–75 μm in thickness prepared by simple and cost-effective methods (dry co-pressing process and spray dry co-pressing process), and discussed the effect of thickness of the GDC electrolyte films on the electrical performance of the anode-supported SOFCs. It was shown that reducing the thickness of the GDC electrolyte films could increase the maximum power densities of the anode-supported SOFCs. The increase of the maximum power densities was attributed to the decrease of the electrolyte resistance with reducing the electrolyte thickness. However, when the thickness of the GDC electrolyte films was less than a certain value (approximately 5 μm in this study), the maximum power densities decreased with the decrease in the thickness of the GDC electrolyte films. The calculated electron fluxes through the GDC electrolyte films increased obviously with reducing the thickness of the GDC electrolyte films, which was the reason why the maximum power densities decreased. Therefore, for anode-supported SOFCs based on electrolytes with mixed electronic–ionic conductivity, there was an optimum electrolyte thickness for obtaining higher electrical performance.