Design and fabrication of a short stack with metal-based solid oxide fuel cells fabricated by sinter-joining method

Abstract

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are attracting attentions because of high energy conversion efficiency and fuel flexibility. Transportation is one of the areas where the application of SOFCs is considered. However, SOFCs are composed of ceramic electrolyte and electrode, which makes SOFCs brittle and unsuitable for application under vibrant condition such as vehicle. To overcome low mechanical robustness of SOFCs, metal-based SOFCs are studied to be applied in transportations. In this study, metal-based cells are fabricated by joining metal plate and ceramic cell using silver bonding materials. This fabrication method has advantages of facile fabrication process, full-sintering of cathode, and sintering process only under air atmosphere. To characterize metal-based SOFCs fabricated by sinter-joining method, microstructure, electrochemical performance, and mechanical strength were studied. To develop a short stack using the metal-based cells fabricated by sinter-joining method, basic configuration of stack was designed. To ensure sealing of the stack, finite element method was applied to achieve uniform stress distribution on compressive gasket. As a result, a short stack was successfully fabricated and tested. After test, post-mortem analysis was conducted.