Solid Oxide Cells (SOC) are a class of functional ceramics-based energy conversion units of which interest is steadily increasing in sustainable industrial applications, given their high energy conversion efficiencies and fuel flexibility. Among the different SOC designs, metal supported SOCs allow higher mechanical robustness, higher resilience toward thermal cycling and lower materials cost when compared with ceramic electrode supported SOC designs. Each functional layer in  SOC requires distinct physical characteristics (grain size, density, porosity, percolation degree and mechanical robustness) and these are dependent on the starting materials, shaping methods and consolidation parameters. The last years saw an increase in interest in additive manufacturing techniques; however, the well-established tape casting based fabrication remains the most scalable and cheapest fabrication method that can be implemented at industrial level, offering a reliable final product without compromising microstructural definition and electrochemical performance during operation.
This study is aimed at addressing the main challenges that can be faced throughout the fabrication of metal supported SOCs via tape casting to allow such technology to get to a more mature stage. To do so, an overview of the whole fabrication process is provided highlighting the crucial steps to achieve good quality and reproducibility of the final SOC. Different cell architectural designs of metal supported SOCs (asymmetric and symmetric) and electrode configurations (ceramic and metal-ceramic composites) are discussed, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of each mainly focusing on fabrication.
Furthermore, it is observed that several factors can contribute to the formation of defects in the SOCs during fabrication.  Dispersion of the fine powder particles and binder composition played a crucial role in obtaining the defect free SOCs.  Keeping the impact of these factors in view, a detailed investigation of the key tape casting process and SOC fabrication parameters such as binder characterization, slurry preparation process, lamination technique and heat treatment was carried out. Through the careful optimization of these parameters, a robust process for the fabrication of the metal supported SOCs is established.