Current Thermal Plasma Spray Activities at DLR in Stuttgart

Long before documented by a climate protection report of UN the need to reduce energy consumption due to world population increase and environmental impacts had been recognised by the science community and, with some delay, by industry. Research activities on regenerative energies and high-efficient energy conversion have been intensified during the last dec-ade. One component of these efforts is the development of fuel cells that are of high interest due to their high efficient and environmental friendly conversion of different fuels to thermo-electrical energy. Since many years the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is active in the development and electro-chemical characterization of low temperature as well as of high temperature fuel cells, in particular the Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC). In the following main attention will be put on the fabrication of SOFCs, more specifically on plasma spraying of functional layers for SOFCs. Latest results and improvements of anode developments will be presented. Additionally a potential method to increase tool life of a plasma torch will be discussed, which may be an important aspect amongst other considerations for a successful commercialization of the results