Fabrication of 3D NiO-YSZ structures for enhanced performance of solid oxide fuel cells and electrolysers
Author(s)
Jang, I
Kelsall, GH
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Increasing densities of (electrode–electrolyte-pore) triple phase boundaries (TPBs) / reaction sites enhance performances of solid oxide electrochemical reactors (SOERs) in both fuel cell (SOFC) and electrolyser (SOE) modes. Inkjet 3D printing is capable of construction of ceramic microstructures on support layers, enabling fabrication of SOERs with enhanced active area to geometric area ratios, thereby up-scaling effective areas / TBP lengths per unit volume.
A Ni(O)-YSZ functional layer was designed and 3D inkjet printed with a surface of circular pillars, a facile geometry for printing that increased the interfacial to geometric area ratio. Deposition of further functional layers and sintering resulted in fully fabricated reactors with structures: H2O-H2 | Ni(O)-YSZ support | Ni(O)-YSZ pillars | YSZ | YSZ-LSM | O2, Air. The corresponding planar structured cell also was fabricated with the same components, for comparison of its electrochemical performance with that of the pillar-structured cell. The latter exhibited performance enhancement over its planar counterpart by factors of ca. 1.5 in fuel cell mode, ca. 3 in steam electrolysis mode, and ca. 4–5 in CO2 electrolysis mode, thereby demonstrating the potential of geometric structuring of electrode | electrolyte interfaces by 3D printing for developing higher performance SOERs.
A Ni(O)-YSZ functional layer was designed and 3D inkjet printed with a surface of circular pillars, a facile geometry for printing that increased the interfacial to geometric area ratio. Deposition of further functional layers and sintering resulted in fully fabricated reactors with structures: H2O-H2 | Ni(O)-YSZ support | Ni(O)-YSZ pillars | YSZ | YSZ-LSM | O2, Air. The corresponding planar structured cell also was fabricated with the same components, for comparison of its electrochemical performance with that of the pillar-structured cell. The latter exhibited performance enhancement over its planar counterpart by factors of ca. 1.5 in fuel cell mode, ca. 3 in steam electrolysis mode, and ca. 4–5 in CO2 electrolysis mode, thereby demonstrating the potential of geometric structuring of electrode | electrolyte interfaces by 3D printing for developing higher performance SOERs.
Date Issued
2022-04
Date Acceptance
2022-03-09
Citation
Electrochemistry Communications, 2022, 137, pp.107260-107260
ISSN
1388-2481
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
107260
End Page
107260
Journal / Book Title
Electrochemistry Communications
Volume
137
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Sponsor
Shell Global Solutions International BV
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1388248122000625?via%3Dihub
Grant Number
4550155742
Subjects
Energy
03 Chemical Sciences
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published online
Article Number
107260
Date Publish Online
2022-03-09