Trends in the processing and manufacture of solid oxide fuel cells

Electrochemical devices based on solid‐state ceramic materials such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) are promising technologies which are gaining importance in today's rapidly developing energy frameworks. In particular, these high‐temperature variants offer further potential benefits such as increased fuel flexibility and higher system efficiencies. One of the significant challenges for SOFCs is the creation of robust, durable, and affordable cells. While the search for new materials remains an important research activity, the role of process development for fabrication and manufacture should not be underestimated. Indeed better understanding between materials, processing, and the resulting microstructure is vital for improving cell performance. The links between cell design and various processing techniques are explored. The most common approaches are based on thick film ceramic processes where recent trends include areas such as production of thinner tape cast layers and challenges in the application of aqueous systems to cell processing. Decoupling the processing and control of bulk and catalytic microstructures within the cell has recently been a very active area of development with techniques such as impregnation and exsolution showing increasingly promising results. Thin film techniques such as physical vapor deposition are also still being investigated for micro SOFCs or thin interfacial layers. In all cases, materials and process development should be closely linked, as high quality, reliable microstructures are essential to optimize the chemistry taking place on the materials and viable routes to manufacture are vital to transferring new materials into commercial devices. WIREs Energy Environ 2017, 6:e248. doi: 10.1002/wene.248