Thin Film Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Task Leader:Professor Alex Ignatiev at Ignatiev@uh.edu

This new thin-film solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) design, which operates at intermediate temperatures, exploits mature, cost effective electronics-industry-based thin film fabrication processes to integrate bulk fuel cell technology. Using epitaxy, which can produce atomically-ordered films, a YSZ oxide electrolyte is grown on a nickel-based foil, and an LSCO cathode is grown on that. The nickel foil is then photolithograpically patterned with closely spaced, micron-sized holes, taking care not to perforate the underlying electrolyte. Completed cells can then be integrated into a manifold that would support the thin film structure,circulate fuel and oxidizer, and collect the generated current.
Personnel:
Dr. NaiJuan Wu: Research Associate Professor
Mr.Xin Chen: Research Assistant
Ms. Laverne Smith: Research Assistant

Related Thin Film Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Publications

Schematic showing layered structure of integrated fuel cell SEM image of etched nickel foil. The ragged hole edges improve the efficiency of the cell by increasing surface area.


Last modified: 05 February 2000