The Properties of Intermediate-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells with Thin Film Gadolinium-Doped Ceria Electrolyte

• Published in: Membranes (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 9; p. 896
• Main Authors: Solovyev, Andrey, Shipilova, Anna, Smolyanskiy, Egor, Rabotkin, Sergey, Semenov, Vyacheslav
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Analysis; Cerium; Cerium gadolinium oxides; Cerium oxides; Communication; Comparative analysis; Conduction; Conductors; Dielectric films; Electric properties; electrolyte thin film; Electrolytes; Electrolytic cells; Fuel cell industry; Fuel cells; Fuel technology; Gadolinium; gadolinium-doped ceria; Magnetron sputtering; mixed ionic-electronic conductor; Open circuit voltage; Operating temperature; Sintering; Solid oxide fuel cells; Temperature; Thin films; Yttria-stabilized zirconia; Yttrium oxide; Zirconia; Russia
• ISSN: 2077-0375; 2077-0375
• DOI: 10.3390/membranes12090896

Mixed ionic-electronic conducting materials are not used as a single-layer electrolyte of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) at relatively high operating temperatures of ~800 °C. This is because of a significant decrease in the open-circuit voltage (OCV) and, consequently, the SOFC power density. The paper presents a comparative analysis of the anode-supported SOFC properties obtained within the temperature range of 600 to 800 °C with yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte and gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC) electrolyte thin films. Electrolyte layers that are 3 µm thick are obtained by magnetron sputtering. It is shown that at 800 °C, the SOFC with the GDC electrolyte thin film provides an OCV over 0.9 V and power density of 2 W/cm2. The latter is comparable to the power density of SOFCs with the YSZ electrolyte, which is a purely ionic conductor. The GDC electrolyte manifests the high performance, despite the SOFC power density loss induced by electronic conductivity of the former, which, in turn, is compensated by its other positive properties.