Hierarchically Oriented Porous Nickel Metal Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Prepared by Phase Inversion Co-Tape Casting Technique

Metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells (MS-SOFCs) have shown significant application potential due to their excellent mechanical strength and relatively low material cost. However, their commercialization has been hindered by the complexity of the integration process between the metal substrate and the single cell. In this work, we innovatively employed the phase inversion cotape casting (PITC) technique to fabricate the hierarchically oriented anode in one step, which consists of the nickel (Ni) metal substrate and the Ni-yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) anode functional layer. It is indicated that the hierarchically oriented porous anode could provide ideal channels for fast gas transport in the anode, thereby holding great promise to eliminate the gas concentration resistance. Electrochemical performance tests demonstrated that, under the 3% H2O humidified hydrogen atmosphere, its peak power densities can reach 0.14 and 0.28 W cm–2 at 750 and 800 °C, respectively, demonstrating considerable electrochemical performance. Notably, during the 20 h stability test at 750 °C and constant voltage of 0.7 V, the cell also exhibited good durability. These results suggest that this unique anode structure holds great promise in the application field of MS-SOFC, and our findings obtained in this work can also guide the development of MS-SOFCs, as well as other energy storage and conversion devices.