Development of a new cost effective Fe-Cr ferritic stainless steel for SOFC interconnect

A new cost effective ferritic stainless steel for interconnect in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), named 460FC, has been developed and fabricated by the conventional continuous casting and rolling process. The oxidation characteristics and high temperature properties of 460FC were investigated at 800 °C and compared with those of Crofer22 which is a well-known representative alloy for the same application. Although the 460FC does not contain rare earth metals and does not limit the content of Si to extremely low level, it shows good electrical conductivity and low Cr evaporation rate. The performance of 460FC in the real cell was also evaluated with 25 cm2 active area single cell test up to 500 h and the degradation rate was almost similar or superior to Crofer22.