The present work has the objective of presenting the preliminary results of the development of aqueous ceramic suspensions for SOFC anodes. These suspensions had been used for the generation of electrodes on flat electrolytes of 8%mol yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) using procedures compatible with the screen-printing technique, since it results in low cost processing and good electrocatalytic properties of the components manufactured by this method. Such suspensions had been produced from commercial ceramic powders. Together with organic supporting of interest, This material, with addition of adequate organic supporting compounds, was processed in a high energy milling, resulting in a precursory mass of the suspension, which is hydrated with distilled water in the final phase of the procedure, generating a paste ready for deposition on the electrolyte and final ceramic processing of firing and sintering. The anode formulation was also studied containing, in the swelling water of the polymer, oxide precursory ions with electrocatalytic activity ( zirconium IV and yttrium III ions), aiming the generation of an auxiliary YSZ structure after the ceramic processing, as a way to optimize the microstructure of the porous film formed. The use of a two step process, the first one consisting of dry milling of the powders and the second one including the addition of solvent (water) for hydration, leads to an advantage concerning storage, since the precursory mixture of the suspension can be kept for long periods of time. The manufacture of the single cell for tests was completed with the use of a commercial LSM suspension, used as cathode. Morphology analyses of the manufactured electrodes, through optic and scanning electron microscopy, demonstrated the achievement of an adequate porous structure, and its adhesion to the substrate. Electrochemical performance tests of single cells evidenced performance enhancement, due to an improvement on the processing procedure by the addition of catalytic surface modifiers.
Anode; screen-printing; aqueous ceramic suspensions; electrocatalytic activity modification; microstructure modifiers
