Fabrication using sequence wet-chemical coating and electrochemical performance of Ni–Fe-foam-supported solid oxide electrolysis cell for hydrogen production from steam

Ni–Fe-alloy-foam supported solid oxide electrolysis cell with an arrangement of nickle and Sc0.1Ce0.005Gd0.005Zr0.89O2 (Ni-SCGZ) cathode, SCGZ electrolyte and Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ (BSCF) anode is successfully fabricated by the sequence wet-chemical coating. The multi-layer cathode with a gradient of thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) is deposited on the alloy-foam support. Two-step firing processes are applied including cathode pre-firing (1373 K, 2 h) and electrolyte sintering (1623 K, 4 h) using slow heating rate enhanced with compressive loading. The fabricated cell shows current density of −0.95 Acm−2 at 1.1 V with H2O:H2 = 70:30 and 1073 K, providing hydrogen production rate at 4.95 × 10−6 mol s−1. However, performance degradation was observed with the rate of 0.08 V h−1, which can be ascribed to the delamination of BSCF anode under operating at high current density.