Development of Single Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SCFC)

Single Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SCFC) have been prepared using an electrolyte as support (Ce 0.9 Gd 0.1 O 1.95 named GDC). Anode (Ni‐GDC) and different cathodes (Sm 0.5 Sr 0.5 CoO 3 (SSC), Ba 0.5 Sr 0.5 Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3 (BSCF) and La 0.8 Sr 0.2 MnO 3 (LSM)) were placed on the same side of the electrolyte. All the electrodes were deposited using screen‐printing technology. A gold collector was also deposited on the cathode to decrease the over‐potential. The different materials and fuel cell devices were tested under propane/air mixture, after a preliminary treatment under hydrogen to reduce the as‐deposited nickel oxide anode. The results show that SSC and BSCF cathodes are not stable in these conditions, leading to a very low open circuit voltage (OCV) of 150 mV. Although LSM material is not the more adequate cathode regarding its high catalytic activity towards hydrocarbon conversion, it has a better chemical stability than SSC and BSCF. Ni‐GDC‐LSM SCFC devices were elaborated and tested; an OCV of nearly 750 mV could be obtained with maximum power densities around 20 mW cm –2 at 620 °C, under air–propane mixture with C 3 H 8 /O 2 ratio equal to 0.53.