Development of microtubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with high power density via tape casting method

In this thesis, a novel solid oxide fuel cell geometry called bolt-microtubular having increased electrolyte/electrode interfacial area is successfully fabricated. Unlike traditional methods, the bolt-microtubular anode supports are formed by winding a tape cast anode support strip around a threaded rod followed by isostatic pressing. Bolt-microtubular cells are then produced by coating other cell layers on these supports using dip coating method. After the fabrication of conventional microtubular anode supports and cells via similar methods for comparison, microstructural, mechanical, electrochemical performance and impedance analyses are performed. Anode support tape length and thickness, thread pitch and depth of the rod are parametrically studied, and the optimization studies based on manufacturability and performance are carried out. At an operating temperature of 800 ºC using the external anode current collection strategy, the highest peak power density of 0.6 W/cm2 is obtained from the bolt-microtubular cell obtained by wrapping 12 cm anode support strip tape cast at 300 µm blade gap around the threaded rod produced with a thread pitch of 0.8 mm and a thread depth of 0.4 mm. This performance is found to be ~92% higher than that of the conventional microtubular cell produced by similar methods, indicating a significant performance improvement.