Ascendable method for the fabrication of micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cells by ram-extrusion technique

Abstract We elaborated a new ceramic paste formulation as a pre-step to ram extrusion process for obtaining porous and mechanically sustainable microtubular anodes. The methodology reported here can establish a scalable fabrication pathway for anode-supported microtubular solid oxide fuel cells (MT-SOFCs). We succeeded in the fabrication of NiO–Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ (NiO-CGO) based MT-anodes from a ceramic paste which comprised of α-cellulose and ethyl cellulose as pore former and binder, respectively. The quantity of the pore former was optimized and 15 wt % of pore former was elected as the superior, based on the microstructure and mechanical behavior. The sintered (at 1450 °C) microtubular (MT-anodes) exhibited an excellent mechanical strength of ∼60 MPa as flexural strength (modulus of rupture) with 0.23% of deformation resistance. The obtained MT-anodes were used as a support for the fabrication of MT-SOFCs prototype with configuration such as Ni-CGO/CGO/LSFC-CGO for anode/electrolyte/cathode, respectively. The ceramic nanocomposites NiO–Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ (Ni-CGO), and La0.6Sr0.4Fe0.8Co0.2O3–Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ (LSFC-CGO) were synthetized by one-step solution combustion method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) analysis. The fabricated MT-SOFC prototype generated a maximum power density of 0.595 W/cm2 at 600 °C signified the worth of the proposed paste formulation.