Production of Compliant Current Collector-Supported Micro-Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

An innovative current collection method for micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is proposed in the present work. Pencil lead was used as support for the coiled current-collector during processing and as sacrificial inner core for the fabrication of microtubular SOFCs. A nickel wire was coiled around the pencil lead thus producing a compliant and homogeneously distributed current collector along the cell length and with two terminals available for the electrical connections. The cell consists of NiO/YSZ anode, YSZ electrolyte and LSM cathode, sequentially deposited by dip coating around the Ni current collector. I-V curves showed maximum power output of similar to 190 mW/cm(2) at 800 degrees C under wet H-2 fuel flow in cells with similar to 1.2 mm diameter and 30 mm length with an active cathode area of about 0.75 cm(2).