| Fuel cells are clean, high energy density electric power devices that will further support the electrical power needs within the computing, energy, manufacturing, space, telecommunications, and transportation industries in the new millennium. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC's) using oxide electrolytes are very efficient, but have the difficulties of high internal resistance losses and high working temperatures with resultant high production costs which hinder their commercialization.; In order to solve the problems of SOFC's and reduce the production costs, a new thin film SOFC has been designed based on epitaxial thin film electrolyte and cathode layers deposited on atomically textured nickel anode substrates. The epitaxial multi-layer heterostructures with selected cathode/electrolyte oxide stacking were deposited on the Ni foil substrate. The substrate Ni foil was then processed by photolithography and etching to develop patterned pores for gas transport through the metallic foil, thus becoming the anode of the fuel cell.; Thin film SOFC's developed with this new method have been fabricated and tested. They operated for extended periods of time at temperatures of ∼600°C, significantly lower than bulk SOFC's, and yielded maximum normalized output power densities of 0.6W/cm2. These results indicate lower internal resistance allowing lower operating temperature and moderate output power for the new designed thin film SOFC which can pave the way for application of the compact thin film fuel cells in a number of areas including personal electronics such as laptop computers. |
