High performance low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells with atomic layer deposited-yttria stabilized zirconia embedded thin film electrolyte

Abstract

We report the design and the fabrication of a sandwich-structured thin-film composite electrolyte for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells supported by a nanoporous anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) substrate. We adopt an extremely thin (25 nm) atomic-layer-deposited (ALD) yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) layer embedded in highly ionic-conductive sputtered samaria-doped ceria (SDC) electrolytes (360 nm thick) and systematically vary the position of the YSZ layer to investigate the optimal design of the composite electrolyte. The cell with a sputtered SDC (180 nm)/ALD YSZ (25 nm)/sputtered SDC (180 nm) sandwich electrolyte shows a high maximum power density of 562 mW cm⁻² at 450 °C, which is the highest performance at this temperature range for AAO-supported cells to date.