Materials Engineering for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Technology

Materials engineering plays vital role in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) technology. For example, engineered porous materials are needed to support delicate electrolyte membranes, where mechanical integrity and effective diffusivity to fuel gases is critical; and to construct fuel cell electrodes, where an optimum combination of ionic conductivity, electronic conductivity, porosity and catalyst distribution is critical. Material engineering also underpins selection of cell designs and material systems to minimise failure, particularly during transient operations such as thermal cycling. The paper will address these issues, making reference to high temperature (>900C) SOFCs for integration with gas turbines, and metal supported SOFCs designed to operate at temperatures of 500-600C.