A nanoporous substrate-based low temperature solid oxide fuel cell using a thin film Ni anode

Abstract A thin film solid oxide fuel cell (TF-SOFC) with a Ni anode on a nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide substrate was demonstrated. In our experiments, Ni was used as an anode material, while a very small amount of Pt was used as a cathode material, which reduced the thickness of the thin film cathode to 65 nm. In addition, a plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition method was used to prepare a yttria-stabilized zirconia electrolyte. The open circuit voltage and the peak power density of the as-fabricated fuel cells, both of which were measured at 500 °C, were 1.04 V and 150 mW/cm2, respectively.