1.

Introduction
1.1 Definition A Fuel Cell is a device that generates electricity by a chemical reaction. Hydrogen is the basic fuel, but fuel cells also require oxygen. One great appeal of fuel cells is that they generate electricity with very little pollutionmuch of the hydrogen and oxygen used in generating electricity ultimately combine to form a harmless by product, namely water. One detail of terminology: a single fuel cell generates a tiny amount of direct current (DC) electricity. In practice, many fuel cells are usually assembled into a stack. Cell or stack, the principles are the same. 1.2 Basic reaction 2 H2 + 2 O2- 2 H2O + 4 e - (anodic reaction) O2 + 4 e- 2 O22 H2 + O2 2 H2O 1.3 History of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Swiss scientist Emil Baur and his colleague H. Preis experimented with solid oxide electrolytes in the late 1930s, using such materials as Zirconium, Yttrium, Cerium, Lanthanum, and Tungsten. Their designs experienced unwanted chemical reactions between the electrolytes and various gases, including Carbon Monoxide. In the 1940s, O. K. Davtyan of Russia added monazite sand to a mix of Sodium Carbonate, Tungsten Trioxide, and soda glass "in order to increase the conductivity and mechanical strength." Davtyan's designs, however, also experienced unwanted chemical reactions and short life ratings. By the late 1950s, research into solid oxide technology began to accelerate at the Central Technical Institute in The Hague, Netherlands, Consolidation Coal Company, in Pennsylvania, and General Electric, in Schenectady, New York. A 1959 discussion of fuel cells noted that problems with solid electrolytes included relatively high internal electrical resistance, melting, and short-circuiting due to semiconductivity. It seems that many researchers began to believe that molten carbonate fuel cells showed more short-term promise. Not all gave up on solid oxide, however. The promise of a high-temperature cell that would be tolerant of Carbon Monoxide and use a stable solid electrolyte continued to draw modest attention. Researchers at Westinghouse, for example, experimented with a cell using Zirconium Oxide and Calcium Oxide in 1962. More recently, climbing energy prices and advances in materials technology have reinvigorated work on SOFCs, and a recent report noted about 40 companies working on these fuel cells. (cathodic reaction) (overall reaction)

2. Working and Properties

A solid oxide fuel cell is made up of four layers. A single cell consist of these four layers stacked together. Hundreds of these cells are then connected in series to form a "SOFC stack".The ceramics used in SOFCs become electrically and ionically active when they are heated to a temp range of 500-1000 degree centigrade. The reduction of oxygen into oxygen ions occurs at the cathode. These ions can then diffuse through the solid oxide electrolyte to the anode where they can electrochemically oxidize the fuel. In this reaction, a water byproduct is given off as well as two electrons. These electrons then flow through an external circuit where they can do work. The cycle then repeats as those electrons enter the cathode material again.

Fig 1. Basic principle schematic, showing in simplified form the electrochemical mechanism of a SOFC.

2.1 Anode The Anode layer must be very porous to allow the fuel to flow towards the electrolyte. It must conduct electron. It has the smallest polarization losses, and is often the layer that provides the mechanical support. It use the oxygen ions that diffuse through the electrolyte to oxidize the hydrogen fuel. The oxidation reaction between the oxygen ions and the hydrogen produces heat as well as water and electricity. If the fuel is a light hydrocarbon, for example methane, another function of the anode is to act as a catalyst for steam reforming the fuel into hydrogen.

2.2 Electrolyte The electrolyte is a dense layer of ceramic that conducts oxygen ions. Its electronic conductivity must be kept as low as possible to prevent losses from leakage currents. The high operating temperatures of SOFCs allow the kinetics of oxygen ion transport to be sufficient for good performance. However, as the operating temperature approaches the lower limit for SOFCs at around 873 K, the electrolyte begins to have large ionic transport resistances and affect the performance.

2.3 Cathode The cathode, or air electrode, is a thin porous layer on the electrolyte where oxygen reduction takes place. Cathode materials must be, at minimum, electronically conductive.

2.4 Interconnect Its purpose is to connect each cell in series, so that the electricity each cell generates can be combined. Because the interconnect is exposed to both the oxidizing and reducing side of the cell at high temperatures, it must be extremely stable. For this reason, ceramics have been more successful in the long term than metals as interconnect materials

3. Materials
3.1 Anode Nickel has been widely opted, because of its abundance and affordability. However, its thermal expansion (13.3 x 10-6/C compared with 10 x 10-6/C for YSZ) is too high to pair it in pure form with YSZ (yttria stabilized zirconia); moreover, it tends to sinter and close off its porosity at operation temperatures. These problems have been solved by making the anode out of a Ni-YSZ composite. The YSZ provides structural support for separated Ni particles, preventing them from sintering together while matching the thermal expansions. Adhesion of the anode to the electrolyte is also improved 3.2 Electrolyte YSZ has emerged as the most suitable electrolyte material. Yttria serves the dual purpose of stabilizing zirconia into the cubic structure at high temperatures and also providing oxygen vacancies at the rate of one vacancy per mole of dopant. A typical dopant level is 10 mol% yttria. The only drawback of stabilized YSZ is the low ionic conductivity in the lower cell operation temperature regime, below about 750 oC (1382oF). 3.3 Cathode Today the most commonly used cathode material is lanthanum manganite (LaMnO 3), aptype perovskite. Typically, it is doped with rare earth elements (eg. Sr, Ce, Pr) to enhance its conductivity. Most often it is doped with strontium and referred to as LSM (La1-xSrxMnO3). The conductivity of these perovskites is all electronic (no ionic conductivity), a desirable feature since the electrons from the open circuit flow back through the cell via the cathode to reduce the oxygen

molecules, forcing the oxygen ions through the electrolyte. In addition to being compatible with YSZ electrolytes, it has the further advantage of having adequate functionality at intermediate fuel cell temperatures (about 700 C), allowing it to be used with alternative electrolyte compositions 3.4 Interconnect The interconnect can be either a metallic or ceramic layer that sits between each individual cell. Because the interconnect is exposed to both the oxidizing and reducing side of the cell at high temperatures, it must be extremely stable. For this reason, ceramics have been more successful in the long term than metals as interconnect materials

4. Manufacturing
The materials and required properties of the principle components like electrolyte, anode, cathode and interconnect in one cell are different, but they must be bonded together, so all of them are required to be mated very well, especially having the similar coefficients of thermal expansion to avoid separation or cracking during fabrication and operation. 4.1 Physical Designs of SOFCs

Fig 2. Configuration for a planar design SOFC

Fig 3. Configuration for a tubular design SOFC

There are a lot of processes to produce the films of SOFC. The usually ways are as follows4.2 Combustion Chemical Vapour Deposition (CCVD) The CCVD is based on combustion of fine aersol of metaorganic solutions. Solutions are obtained by dissolving metal organic reagents in organic solvent and are atomised into small sized aerosols by the nebulizer when it was mixed with oxygen. In this technique there is a potential to have conformal deposition of films on non-flat surfaces. Moreover, because there is no vacuum chamber needed for the [process, there is no size limitation as well. Therefore, CCVD 4.3 Atmospheric Plasma Spraying (APS) Plasma spraying is a one step, high temperature process, and may not need to be followed by a separate sintering step. Plasma spraying includes a) Atmospheric Plasma Spraying (APS) b) Vacuum Plasma Spraying (VPS). Plasma spraying has been considered as a method for depositing both electrodes and electrolyte layers in SOFC . Prior to plasma spraying onto a substrate, the substrate must be prepared. This requires cleaning to remove any impurities from the surface, and roughening to ensure a strong adherence between the molten oxides and the substrate. 4.4 Vacuum Plasma Spraying (VPS) Plasma spraying can also be done at reduced pressures by enclosing the entire system inside a vacuum chamber, which is called vacuum plasma spraying (VPS).The problem with atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) is that the particles in flight interact physically and chemically with the

surrounding atmosphere. As a result, oxides and nitrides are trapped in the coating. Additionally, the interaction with the atmosphere decreases the temperature and velocity of the plasma jet. 4.5 Sol Gel Sol-gel process involves that a layer is deposited by the dispersion colloid. A film is deposited by Sol-gel process in three stages: a) compounding sol, b) formation of coagulum sol, c) and coking of gelatin. The needed metal salts are dissolved into the solvent, water, according to suitable ratio. At the same time, a multi-functional acid including, at least, hydroxyl and carbonyl is added so that the metal ions can uniformly disperse in the colloid to form the stable sol. Then the sol dehydrates at low-mid temperature (less than 100C) to form the glass-like gel. The gel is coated on the substrate by spin-coating process, then pre-heat. Repeat the above process for many times to get the required the thickness. In the end, the gel is coked, or sintered, to remove the organic and manufacture the oxide.

4.6 Tape casting A common process for producing thin ceramic sheets or ceramic loaded polymer sheets for use in the electronics industry is tape casting. Tape casting is commonly used for preparing the green electrolyte, and is often used for preparing the anode and cathode layers as well. In tape casting, the ceramic oxides are mixed with solvents, binders, and plasticizers in a ball mill. This mixture is then formed into thin sheets by passing it along a moving belt beneath a thin blade known as a doctor blade. The resulting thin sheets are dried slowly under carefully controlled conditions to remove the solvent, and then cut to size with an auto punch or other green-machining device. If needed, multiple layers (cathode, electrolyte and anode) can be cast on top of one another, and laminated together, and then co-sintered in a furnace.

4.7 Screen printing In many SOFC designs, the anode and /or cathode layers are screen printed onto the electrolyte, and the resulting bi-layer or tri-layer is then sintered. Screen-printing process has been looked as a deposition technique because thin layers can be produced, and the cost is much lower than the cost of most competing deposition techniques. In screen-printing, slurry containing the materials to be deposited is passed through a moving squeegee onto a fine wire mesh screen covering a substrate. The hydraulic pressure of the squeegee forces the slurry onto the substrate and its pre-sintered thickness is controlled by the thickness of the screen.

5. Advantages and Disadvantages of SOFC

5.1 Advantages

One advantage of SOFC is that hydrogen and carbon dioxide are used as fuel in the cell. This means that SOFC can use many common hydrocarbon fuels such as natural gas, diesel, gasoline and alcohol without the need to reform the fuel into pure hydrogen. In other fuel cells, such as the polymer electrolyte fuel cell, that are fueled with pure hydrogen, the carbon dioxide is a poison. SOFC have a potentially lower cost due to the absence of precious metals, compared to proton exchange membrane and phosphoric acid fuel cells which use platinum as a catalyst. Some other fuel cell types use liquid electrolytes, similar to battery acid, that can have a corrosive effect on components. Since SOFC use one piece solid state ceramic cells, they are easier to maintain due to the lack of this corrosion 5.2 Disadvantages Material costs are high, particularly for interconnect and construction materials. Interconnects carry electrical current between individual cells in the stack and can also act as a separator between the fuel and oxidant supplies. In high temperature SOFC the interconnect may be a ceramic such as lanthanum chromite, or, if the temperature is limited to <1000C, a sophisticated refractory alloy e.g. based on mechanically alloyed Y/Cr. In either case the interconnect represents a major proportion of the cost of the stack. Stack construction materials and balance of plant also need to be refractory enough to contain and manipulate the high temperature gas streams. A potential drawback to the use of chromium containing ceramics and alloys is the volatility of the material, which can result in contamination of the stack components. This has an increased significance for future reclamation of materials and components from used stacks where the presence of a toxic material such as Cr6+ would require special disposal procedures.

References
1. Efficient Fuel Cell Hybrid Power Plant to Be Built http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/10/effficient_fuel.html, Accessed 28 Aug 2010 2. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Advantages And Applications of SOFCs The American Ceramic Society , http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=3781, Accessed 28 Aug 2010 3. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_oxide_fuel_cell , Accessed 28 Aug 2010 4. Solid Oxide Fuel Cell History http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/so/sofcmain.htm , Accessed 28 Aug 2010 5. Nigel M. Sammes, Alevtina Smirnova, Oleksandr Vasylyev, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Exploration of Combustion CVD Method for YSZ Thin Film Electrolyte of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Fuel Cell Technologies: State and Perspectives, 2005, Springer, pg. 50 6. Xian Feng Jiang, Min Fang Han, Su Ping Peng, Manufacturing Processes of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Components, Key Engineering Materials, 2007, Vols. 336-338, pp. 498501.