The mandatory need of an energy sources diversification leads to a current great interest for the research areas related to hydrogen technologies. In particular, with a high efficiency Solid Oxide Cells produce either hydrogen when used in the electrolysis mode (Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell, SOEC) or electricity and heat when used in the Fuel Cell mode (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, SOFC). However, the durability in operation (especially in the SOEC mode) needs to be improved by reaching less than 1% degradation per 1000 h (PEPR-H2 target). To reach this objective, one of the solutions is to decrease the working temperature (i.e. 600°C, even less) without decreasing the power density. Such a low operating temperature with a 10 µm thick electrolyte requires using an excellent high ionic conductor of electrolyte material, such as Ce_0.9Gd_0.1O_1.95 (GDC10).
The first goal of this study is to produce a Solid Oxide Cell entirely composed of GDC10 forming a dense layer for the electrolyte and porous electrodes. The second goal is to develop a simple and low cost shaping process, i.e. the tape casting in this work. Present work will focus on the optimization of each step of the process in order to obtain a cell without deformation. The targeted cell diameter is 36 mm (after sintering) with a thickness of i) 10 µm for the dense layer as well as the thin porous layer and ii) 800 µm for the porous layer supporting the cell.

References
[1] Nicollet C. et al. Preparation and characterization of Pr₂NiO_{4+ δ} infiltrated into Gd-doped ceria as SOFC cathode. Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry 2016, 20, 2071−78.
[2] Guesnet L. et al. Shaping of ceria-based SOC cells: development of a combined tape-casting and infiltration route. ECS Transactions, Electrochemical Society, Inc. 2019, 91, 291-299.