Ultrafast Fabrication of Protonic Ceramic Electrochemical Cells Via Rapid Co-Sintering Process

Ceramic-based fuel cells have continued to attract attention due to their high energy conversion efficiency. Among them, proton ceramic electrochemical cells (PCECs) using barium-based proton conducting oxides have been considered as promising candidates for future energy devices. Because they can operate at low temperature (< 650 ℃) compared to other ceramic based fuel cells through the low activation energy. However, PCECs have problems about the secondary phase of proton conducting oxides due to the relatively high calcination/sintering temperature and annealing time. This issue has a detrimental effect on the electrochemical performance of PCECs. Herein, to overcome these hurdles, we suggest innovative approach using rapid co-sintering process (Microwave-assisted sintering method), which dramatically reduces the sintering time (< 10min). Our device exhibited higher electrochemical performance than the conventionally sintered PCECs processed at 1500 ℃ for 5 h. Our results provide effective pathway in fabricating PCECs with an optimal performance.