Rapid and Low Temperature Densification of Gadolinia Doped Ceria Barrier Layers by Photonic Curing

Solid oxide fuel cells hold the greatest potential among fuel cell technologies due to their efficiency, scalability, and fuel flexibility. The primary barriers to commercialization of this technology are the cost and stability of the solid oxide fuel cells. To lower the cost and improve the robustness of solid oxide fuel cells, cell operating temperatures should be reduced to 500-700 °C which will allow the use of metal- supported instead of traditional ceramic supported solid oxide fuel cells. Aside from the lower cost of the metal supports compared to that of ceramics, the higher thermal conductivity and ductility improve durability. Manufacturing metal-supported cells presents significant challenges due to the need of lower processing temperatures. This proposal seeks to develop a process to form high-density gadolinia doped ceria barriers layers on solid oxide fuel cell electrolyte substrates by photonic curing. Photonic curing operates by pulsed light from a xenon flash lamp incident on a nanoparticle film that converts the optical energy into heat, resulting in fully sintered and dense metallic and ceramic thin films in less than a microsecond. The short exposure time at elevated temperatures allows the sintering of metallic and ceramic films onto a variety of substrates (including plastics) which would otherwise be damaged at high temperature. This technology may be applied in reel-to-reel processes. During this Phase I program, gadolinia doped ceria nanopowders of various sizes and doping levels will be applied to solid oxide fuel cell electrolyte substrates, photonically cured, and compared to traditionally formed gadolinia doped ceria barriers layers. The development of this advanced manufacturing technology will pave the way to reduced costs, ease of production, and increased efficiency of solid oxide fuel cells. The contribution of solid oxide fuel cells to improve energy conversion and provide abundant and low cost energy with near-zero emission cannot be overstated. By Department of Energy’s own calculation, if successful, the solid oxide fuel cell program under the Alternate Energy Systems will result in a 14% reduction in the cost of electricity and a decrease of $18/tonne in the cost of captured carbon dioxide.