Performance and Degradation of Electrolyte Supported SOECs with Advanced GDC Thin-film Layers in Long-term Stack Test
Authors: Han Feng , Lang Michael , Szabo Patric , Geipel Christian , Walter Christian , Costa Rémi 
Published: September 2023

Solid oxide electrolyser (SOE) based on electrolyte-supported cell (ESC) architecture is proven to be highly efficient and reliable technology for green hydrogen production via high temperature electrolysis. Operating under industrial conditions, the performance, lifetime and robustness of the cells and stacks belong to the most important factors for an up-scaled penetration of the SOE technology into energy and chemistry sectors. A typical ESC consists of scandia- or yttria-stabilized zirconia electrolyte, Ni-cermet fuel electrode, lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite (LSCF) oxygen electrode and either one or two Gd-doped ceria (GDC) layers with a thickness of 5-7 µm between electrolyte and electrodes. At the oxygen electrode side, the GDC layer prevents interdiffusion (mainly of Sr), whereas at the fuel electrode side, the GDC layer may improve the electrode adherence to electrolyte and reduce the interfacial resistance. State-of-the-art fabrication route of the GDC layers is screen-printing followed by partially sintering at high temperature between 1200 °C to 1300 °C. This fabrication process usually results in porous structure in the GDC layers and residual stresses which reduce the mechanical strength of the cells.

Aiming to improve the mechanical strength of ESCs and the properties (e.g. porosity and electrical conductivity) of GDC layers, the conventional screen-printed GDC layers either only at the oxygen electrode or at both electrodes were replaced by 0.5 µm thick thin-film GDC layers fabricated by electron-beam physical evaporation deposition (EB-PVD) method at 600 °C. These EB-PVD-fabricated thin-film GDC layers were electrochemically characterized in a so-called “rainbow” stack with 30 repeat units (RUs), including 4 RUs with EB-PVD GDC layers at the oxygen electrode and screen-printed GDC at fuel electrode, 3 RUs with EB-PVD GDC layers at both electrodes and 23 RUs with state-of-the-art screen-printed GDC layers at both electrodes. The stack was operated for over 5000 h in SOEC mode under a current density of -410 mA cm−2 and 75 % steam conversion, with a feed gas composition of 80 % steam + 10 % H2 + 10 % N2 on the fuel electrode and air on oxygen electrode.

In this paper, the investigation focuses on the electrochemical characteristics of RUs containing the EB-PVD thin-film GDC layers during the SOEC stack testing. The performance and degradation behavior of the stack and representative RUs were investigated and compared by means of current-voltage curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The initial performance and the degradation of the voltage and resistances of the stack and the RUs with EB-PVD GDC thin-film layers were determined and discussed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the modifications in the scenario of long-term SOEC stack testing.

The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) is acknowledged for the financial supports within the project H2GiGa-HTEL (grant no. 03HY124E).