Development of Proton Conducting Ceramic Cells in Metal Supported Architecture

Metal-Supported (MS) architecture offers various advantages over state-of-the-art ceramic supported SOCs, such as high tolerance towards thermal/redox cycling that are key features for flexible and reliable operation in high temperature fuel cell and electrolysis applications. Our target is to develop Proton-conducting Ceramic Cells (PCC) in MS architecture, of which combination can provide potentially high performances, mechanical stability and flexibility for wide range of electrochemical applications. The key challenge in the development of MS-PCC is to find a feasible process to fabricate gas-tight electrolyte on the porous metal substrate without degrading the metal support and the electrolyte. Our strategy is implementing multilayers combining wet chemical processes below 1000°C for the functional electrode and dry Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) techniques below 800 °C for the gas-tight electrolyte coating. In this paper, we present our recent results in the development of MS-PCC half cells. The materials selection for MS and PCC components, functional layer processing and electrolyte layer deposition techniques are discussed.