Electrospinning in solid oxide fuel cells - A review

Electrospinning has been recognized as an efficient technique for the fabrication of polymer/ceramic nanofibers. Due to the nanosize of the electrospun fibers they exhibit outstanding properties which make them to be optimal candidates for many important potential applications including solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). SOFCs are high temperature fuel cells which convert fuels directly to electricity through electrochemical reactions. SOFCs have higher efficiencies when compared to conventional energy production technologies. In recent years, efforts are focused towards increasing the performance of SOFCs and also decreasing the cost by following different approaches and strategies. The performance of a SOFC can be significantly altered by changing the composition and microstructure of the cathode. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the fabrication of electrospun nanofibers (cathodes/anodes) for intermediate temperature SOFCs to improve the SOFC performance. In this paper, an overview of the research activities in this field is presented along with the challenges and future prospects of electrospinning in SOFCs.