3-D inkjet-printed solid oxide electrochemical reactors. II. LSM - YSZ electrodes

Abstract Inkjet printing is an economical additive manufacturing technique with minimal material waste, which offers a high degree of control over vertical resolution, so lending itself well to the fabrication of the functional layers of solid oxide electrochemical reactors. We formulated a printable and stable colloidal dispersion of La 0.8 Sr 0.2 MnO 3 (LSM) - (Y 2 O 3 ) 0.08 (ZrO 2 ) 0.92 (YSZ) ink to print sequentially onto an inkjet-printed YSZ electrolyte sintered to a Ni-YSZ substrate to form the cell: Ni-YSZ|YSZ|YSZ-LSM|LSM. After sintering, the electrolyte and YSZ-LSM electrode were 9 and 20 μm thick, respectively. The performances of these reactors were determined as fuel cells, operating with dry H 2 , and as electrolysers, operating with CO/CO 2 in the ratio 1/9. At 788 °C, the peak fuel cell power density was 0.69 W cm −2 , and at a cell potential difference of 1.5 V, the electrolysis current density was 3.3 A cm −2 , indicating that the performance of inkjet-printed YSZ-LSM electrodes can exceed those fabricated by conventional powder mixing processes.