(Planar) Solid Oxide Fuel Cells consist of successive layers of materials, each developed to fulfill specific purposes. The figure shows an example of a state-of-the-art ‘stack repeating unit’ (SRU), consisting of
- dense Fe(76%)Cr(22%)Mn(1%)La(0.5%)Ti(0.5%) alloy (1 mm)
- dense Mn-Co spinel layer for corrosion protection (5-10 µm coating)
- porous cathode gas diffusion layer (GDL-c) (1 mm)
- porous cathode perovskite catalyst, LaSrCoFe-oxide (20 µm)
- dense Gd-doped ceria CeO2 oxygen ion conductor (5 µm)
- dense Y-stabilized zirconia ZrO2 oxygen ion conductor (5 µm)
- porous Ni-Y-ZrO2 cermet composite (200 µm, tape-cast)
- porous anode gas diffusion layer (GDL-a) (0.5 mm)
- dense SrTiO3 perovskite layer for corrosion protection (5-10 µm coating)
- sealing material, compressive gasket or glass(ceramic) e.g. Ba-Si-Al based
We conduct measurements (electrical, mechanical, (electro)chemical) on these materials to characterize and understand their behavior and insert their measured properties into our corresponding models.
