Direct-Write Microfabrication of Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells with Interdigitated Electrodes
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Direct-Write Microfabrication of Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells with Interdigitated Electrodes Melanie Kuhn1, Teko Napporn2, Michel Meunier2, Daniel Therriault1, and Srikar Vengallatore3 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal, 2900 Boulevard Edouard-Montpetit, Montreal, H3T 1J4, Canada 2 Department of Engineering Physics, École Polytechnique de Montréal, 2900 Boulevard Edouard-Montpetit, Montreal, H3T 1J4, Canada 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, H3A 2K6, Canada
ABSTRACT Miniaturized single-chamber solid oxide fuel cells (SC-SOFC) are a promising class of devices for portable power generation. Here we report the direct-write fabrication and structural characterization of SC-SOFCs in the single-face configuration, which consists of closely-spaced interdigitated electrodes on an electrolyte plate. The essential concepts underlying this technique are the fabrication of inks using electrode powders, pressure-driven extrusion through a micronozzle onto a robot-controlled platform, and sintering to form porous electrodes. As the first step in the development of detailed process-structure-performance correlations for the fuel cells, we studied the effects of extrusion pressure (in the range 30-40 bar) and stage velocity (in the range 0.2-2.0 mm/s) on the quality and size of electrodes for fixed suspension viscosity and nozzle diameter. An optimal combination of speed and pressure has been identified and catalogued in the form of process maps. Single-chamber SOFCs were fabricated with interdigitated electrodes with width and inter-electrode spacings of 140 µm and 300 µm respectively.
INTRODUCTION Miniaturized solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are gaining increasing interest as power generation technology for portable electronic devices such as notebooks, mobile phones, and micromachined sensors [1-3]. In the conventional (dual-chamber) design, the fuel cell comprises of an electrolyte “sandwiched” between anode and cathode layers. During operation, fuel (hydrogen or hydrocarbons) is supplied to the anode, oxygen to the cathode, and care is taken to ensure that the two gas streams do not mix. Thus, the dual-chamber design requires gas-tight, high-temperature microfluidic sealing technology and thermal isolation schemes, both of which impose stringent manufacturing challenges [2]. Hence, there is increasing interest in exploring a different concept, namely single-chamber solid oxide fuel cells (SC-SOFC). In this approach, the fuel and air are pre-mixed and flow over both electrodes of the fuel cell [4, 5]. SC-SOFCs are ideally suited for miniaturization because of their compact design, absence of any hightemperature microfluidic sealing requirements, and potential ease of integration with micromachined sensors and actuators.
Figure 1. a) Schematic representation of single-chamber SOFC with interdigitated electrodes; b) Schematic representation of robot-controlled direct-write microfabrication.
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