title: Improved solid oxide fuel cell performance with nanostructured electrolytes.
abstract: Considerable attention has been focused on solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) due to their potential for providing clean and reliable electric power. However, the high operating temperatures of current SOFCs limit their adoption in mobile applications. To lower the SOFC operating temperature, we fabricated a corrugated thin-film electrolyte membrane by nanosphere lithography and atomic layer deposition to reduce the polarization and ohmic losses at low temperatures. The resulting micro-SOFC electrolyte membrane showed a hexagonal-pyramid array nanostructure and achieved a power density of 1.34 W/cm(2) at 500 °C. In the future, arrays of micro-SOFCs with high power density may enable a range of mobile and portable power applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 440 Escondido Mall, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Cheng-Chieh
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: Ching-Mei
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Fritz B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Prinz