Thin Film Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (LTSOFC) by Reactive Spray Deposition Technology (RSDT)

The present work describes the effect on the performance of a SOFC when a Gd0.2Ce0.8O1.9 (GDC) layer is introduced as diffusion barrier layer between the yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte and the La0.6Sr0.4Co1-xFexO3-δ (LSCF) cathode of an anode supported cell with Ni-YSZ anode. The dense, thin and fully crystalline GDC films were directly applied by RSDT, without any post-deposition heating or sintering steps. The quality of the film and performance of the cell prepared by Reactive Spray Deposition Technology (RSDT) was compared to a GDC blocking layer deposited by screen printing (SP) and then sintered at 1000oC. By applying RSDT to deposit the GDC-barrier layer onto the YSZ electrolyte a lower ohmic resistance was obtained for the RSDT deposited cell vs. the SP cell. The lower resistance can be attributed to the well crystallized, thin and dense GDC layer deposited at 900oC