Manufacturing Ceramic Tapes and Thick Film Pastes for SOFCs in an ISO 9001 Environment

摘要

Cell and stack developers need to obtain volume quantities of materials consistently and economically. Two viable technologies are cast ceramic tapes and thick-film pastes. Engineering, scale-up and manufacture provide unique challenges. Materials engineered for manufacturability require control from raw material identification to finished product including source qualification, specification development, paste and tape formulation, in-process control, and documentation. Tapes are manufactured in laboratory and prototype volumes. Thin electrolyte tapes present a manufacturing challenge. Data on tapes that fire to full density at thicknesses <12.5 μm are shown. Pastes are used for electrolytes, cathodes, anodes, current collectors, and interconnects. Electrolytes must be gas tight. Vehicles required to disperse high surface area powders must burn out to leave dense, uniform films. Cathode and anode pastes require vehicles designed for large area prints. Reproducing pastes despite powder variation is another challenge. Paste properties for multiple manufacturing lots are presented.