Nguyen Q. Minh¹, Yoon Ho Lee¹, Tuyen Q. Tran¹, Haowen Ren², Eric F. Fullerton², Erik A. Wu³, Ying S. Meng³; ¹Center for Energy Research, University of California, San Diego, ²Material Science and Engineering Program, University of California, San Diego, ³Department of Nanoengineering, University of California San Diego

A compact and lightweight multi-cell stack design incorporating metal-supported thin-film cells is being developed for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Thin-film cells on dense and porous supports have been fabricated by sputtering. Cell components with desirable structural characteristics have been obtained by tailoring sputtering parameters and conditions, e.g., fully dense yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolytes, porous Ni/YSZ anodes, porous lanthanum strontium cobalt perovskite (LSC)/YSZ cathodes and dense gadolinium doped ceria (GDC) cathode-electrolyte interlayers. Single cells have been deposited in a single process by sequential sputtering using a single piece of equipment. Characterization of sputtered cells indicates uniform layer thicknesses, well defined interfaces and excellent adherence between layers. Electrochemical testing shows exceptionally high performance for sputtered thin-film cells with hydrogen, methane and ethanol, e.g., peak power densities of ~1.7 W/cm2 and ~2.1 W/cm2 with hydrogen fuel and air at operating temperatures of 600oC and 650oC, respectively