Fabrication of thin yttria-stabilized-zirconia dense electrolyte layers by inkjet printing for high performing solid oxide fuel cells

In this work, we present how a low-cost HP Deskjet 1000 inkjet printer was used to fabricate a 1.2 μm thin, dense and gas tight 16 cm2 solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) electrolyte. The electrolyte was printed using an ink made of highly diluted (<4 vol.%) nanometric yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) powders (50 nm in size) in an aqueous medium. The ink was designed to be a highly dispersed, long term stable colloidal suspension, with optimal printability characteristics. The electrolyte was made by a multiple printing procedure, which ensures coverage of the several flaws occurring in a single printing pass. Together with an optimized sintering procedure this resulted in good adhesion and densification of the electrolyte. The SOFC exhibited a close-to-theoretical open circuit voltage and a remarkable peak power density above 1.5 W cm−2 at 800 °C.