A cathode-supported solid oxide fuel cell prepared by the phase-inversion tape casting and impregnating method

Cathode-supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) have unique advantages of stability and operating life, but the commercialization process is limited by manufacturing cost and poor electrochemical performance. In this paper, a cathode-supported SOFC with 3YSZ-LSM95| porous 8YSZ| dense 8YSZ| porous 8YSZ sandwich structure was successfully fabricated by phase-inversion tape casting and co-sintering method. The cathode support demonstrated finger shaped macropore with high porosity. The long-term stability of symmetric cells with and without impregnated LSC nanoparticals was evaluated and no obvious degregadion were observed. The peak power densities of single cell reached 464, 209, 271 and 144 mW cm−2 at 850, 800, 750 and 700 °C respectively when Ni nano-particles as the anode catalyst and LSC nano-particles as the cathode catalyst, showing a significant improvement in electrochemical performance compared with non-LSC cell. Additionally, the distribution of relaxation times (DRT) method was empoyed to analysis the polarization process at high-resolution, for better understanding the mechanism of electrochemical reaction of cells. The results indicated the impregnated LSC particles can increase the triple phase-boundaries (TPBs) for fast oxygen reduction reaction and improve the electrochemical performance. However, the optimization of anode and cathode are needed in the future work.