Nanotubular array solid oxide fuel cell.

This report presents a demonstration and characterization of a nanotubular array of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) made of one-end-closed hollow tube Ni/yttria-stabilized zirconia/Pt membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs). The tubular MEAs are nominally ∼5 μm long and have <500 nm outside diameter with total MEA thickness of nearly 50 nm. Open circuit voltages up to 660 mV (vs air) and power densities up to 1.

Enhanced oxygen exchange on surface-engineered yttria-stabilized zirconia.

Ion conducting oxides are commonly used as electrolytes in electrochemical devices including solid oxide fuel cells and oxygen sensors. A typical issue with these oxide electrolytes is sluggish oxygen surface kinetics at the gas-electrolyte interface. An approach to overcome this sluggish kinetics is by engineering the oxide surface with a lower oxygen incorporation barrier.

Improved solid oxide fuel cell performance with nanostructured electrolytes.

Considerable attention has been focused on solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) due to their potential for providing clean and reliable electric power. However, the high operating temperatures of current SOFCs limit their adoption in mobile applications. To lower the SOFC operating temperature, we fabricated a corrugated thin-film electrolyte membrane by nanosphere lithography and atomic layer deposition to reduce the polarization and ohmic losses at low temperatures.

Surface modification of yttria-stabilized zirconia electrolyte by atomic layer deposition.

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte membranes were surface modified by adding a 1 nm thin, high-yttria concentration YSZ film with the help of atomic layer deposition. The addition of the 1 nm film led to an increase of the maximum power density of a low-temperature solid oxide fuel cell (LT-SOFC) by a factor of 1.50 at 400 degrees C.

Solid oxide fuel cell with corrugated thin film electrolyte.

A low temperature micro solid oxide fuel cell with corrugated electrolyte membrane was developed and tested. To increase the electrochemically active surface area, yttria-stabilized zirconia membranes with thickness of 70 nm were deposited onto prepatterned silicon substrates. Fuel cell performance of the corrugated electrolyte membranes released from silicon substrate showed an increase of power density relative to membranes with planar electrolytes.