Method of making a fuel cell device

摘要

A monolithic fuel cell device is provided by forming anode and cathode layers by dispensing paste of anode or cathode material around pluralities of spaced-apart removable physical structures to at least partially surround the structures with the anode or cathode material and then drying the paste. An electrolyte layer is provided in a multi-layer stack between the cathode layer and the anode layer thereby forming an active cell portion. The multi-layer stack is laminated, and then the physical structures are pulled out to reveal spaced-apart active passages formed through each of the anode layer and cathode layer. Finally, the laminated stack is sintered to form an active cell comprising the spaced apart active passages embedded in and supported by the sintered anode material and sintered cathode material.

主权项

1. A method of making a monolithic fuel cell device, comprising:
forming an anode layer by dispensing a first paste of anode material around a first plurality of spaced-apart removable physical structures to at least partially surround each of the first plurality of spaced-apart removable physical structures with the anode material and drying the first paste; forming a cathode layer by dispensing a second paste of cathode material around a second plurality of spaced-apart removable physical structures to at least partially surround each of the second plurality of spaced-apart removable physical structures with the cathode material and drying the second paste; positioning an electrolyte layer in a multi-layer stack between the cathode layer and the anode layer, wherein an active cell portion of the multi-layer stack is formed by the anode layer in opposing relation to the cathode layer with the electrolyte layer therebetween; laminating the multi-layer stack; pulling the first and second plurality of removable physical structures out of the laminated multi-layer stack to reveal spaced-apart active passages formed through each of the anode layer and the cathode layer; and sintering the laminated multi-layer stack to form an active cell comprising the spaced apart active passages embedded in and supported by the sintered anode material and sintered cathode material, wherein forming one or both of the anode layer and cathode layer includes dispensing the first or second paste with a varying composition in the thickness direction of the removable physical structures, wherein the variation in composition is selected from amount of porosity, size of pores, chemical composition, relative electrical conductivity, relative ionic conductivity, bonding properties, ratio of anode or cathode material to ceramic material, or a combination thereof, and wherein the varying composition includes a graded porosity with the porosity decreasing in a thickness direction away from the electrolyte layer.