Development of a novel cell structure for low-temperature SOFC using porous stainless steel support combined with hydrogen permeable Pd layer and thin film proton conductor

A novel cell structure for low-temperature SOFC was proposed, using porous stainless steel support substrates combined with thin hydrogen permeable Pd layers, thin-film proton conductor, and thin-film cathode. Metallic supports consist of sintered ferritic stainless steel spherical powders whose thermal expansion coefficient is close to that of the hydrogen permeable layers and proton conductive electrolytes. To prepare the cell, both the 1.2-μm thick proton conductive Sr(Zr_0.8Y_0.2)O_3−δ electrolyte layer and the 100-nm thick (La_0.6Sr_0.4)(Co_0.2Fe_0.8)O_3−δ cathode layer were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on a Pd-coated porous ferritic stainless steel substrate. The power generation performance at a low temperature of 400 °C was demonstrated in this proposed cell for the first time, while obtained power density is still low and improvements are required. - Highlights: • A novel cell structure using metallic support for low-temperature SOFC was proposed. • Ferritic porous metal support was combined with thin film of proton conductor SZYO. • Cell performance at 400 °C of the proposed cell was demonstrated for the first time.