Three-dimensional printed Yttria-stabilized Zirconia self-supported electrolytes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell applications

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of stereolithography 3D printing to create self-supported yttria-stabilized zirconia electrolytes for solid oxide fuel cells, enabling complex geometries and improved performance.

Contribution

It introduces a novel additive manufacturing process for fabricating complex, functional zirconia electrolytes and validates a numerical model for designing advanced configurations.

Findings

Printed electrolytes show full electrochemical functionality.

Complex geometries improve device performance.

Numerical model accurately predicts electrochemical behavior.

Abstract

Additive manufacturing represents a revolution due to its unique capabilities for freeform fabrication of near net shapes with strong reduction of waste material and capital cost. These unfair advantages are especially relevant for expensive and energy-demanding manufacturing processes of advanced ceramics such as Yttria-stabilized Zirconia, the state-of-the-art electrolyte in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell applications. In this study, self-supported electrolytes of yttria-stabilized zirconia have been printed by using a stereolithography three-dimensional printer. Printed electrolytes and complete cells fabricated with cathode and anode layers of lanthanum strontium manganite- and nickel oxide-yttria-stabilized zirconia composites, respectively, were electrochemical characterized showing full functionality. In addition, more complex configurations of the electrolyte have been printed yielding an increase of the performance entirely based on geometrical aspects. Complementary, a numerical model has been developed and validated as predictive tool for designing more advanced configurations that will enable highly performing and fully customized devices in the next future