Fabrication framework for metal supported solid oxide cells via tape casting

Among the different solid oxide cells (SOCs) designs, metal supported SOCs (MSOCs) offer important advantages such as enhanced mechanical robustness, improved thermal resilience and lower material costs. The conventional tape casting method, which is used for the commercial multilayer ceramic technology, is also attractive for the fabrication of MSOCs due to its inherent scalability and cost-efficient fabrication methodology while offering a reliable product without compromising critical microstructural aspects and electrochemical performance during operation.This study is aimed at addressing the main challenges in the fabrication of MSOCs using tape casting, to provide a robust framework for the fabrication parameters, allowing the technology to advance to a more mature stage. It was shown that the dispersion of the powder particles and the physical and chemical characteristics of the binder are found to play a crucial role in obtaining defect free MSOCs and are discussed in detail. Different architectural designs of the cells (asymmetric and symmetric) and electrode configurations (ceramic and metal-ceramic composites) are studied, highlighting their strengths and challenges. The framework established within this work allowed to fabricate, reproduce and test MSOC that exhibited electrochemical performance comparable to state-of-the-art solid oxide cells (electrolysis current density of 0.6 A/cm2 at 1.3 V at 700oC, 50 % steam in H2 at fuel side and air at the oxygen side).